Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval and I can prove that because *I* don't kill off major characters just to show how dark and edgy I can be...
Authors Note: There isn't nearly enough Matt/Emily fiction out there for me and I have no idea when season five starts so I just had to get this out of my system. I live in a land far far away from regular internet access and because of that I only get to check my email every so often so don't get upset if I don't respond to you within what a normal person in civilization would consider a reasonable time.
Spoilers for series 4.
Time Travelers Wife
It was finally over. Connor had a bit too much to drink one night and spilled everything to Abby. She had turned to Jess, Becker and Matt about the anomalies. Matt chose that moment to tell his own truths, that Danny was positive that Burton knew Helen and they were working together to an end that would be catastrophic.
Matt told them about the world he came from, and about the world he had been sent back to save. They had been shocked he had lied to them all so convincingly but as he pointed out there was a lot riding on him. Lying to them was the least of his problems.
They all went to Lester and less than two hours after Abby told the team what Connor had drunkenly confessed to her, Burton was headed for a secret MI-6 prison that usually was reserved for terrorists. Lester described it as quite similar to the American's club Gitmo but a much better kept secret.
Trying to remake the future and destroying the world counted as a terrorist act, qualifying him for an all access pass.
When things settled down a bit Matt felt free to have a quiet word with Jess.
"I'm just curious, how she made out. Will you please look for me?" He asked her, trying not to look pathetic. The tech to open an anomaly to a specific time and place wouldn't exist for another decade at least, if Connor figured it out at all in this time line, unless he gave up his last secret.
Jess had smiled at him brilliantly, "Of course Matt, I'll admit I'm a bit curious myself."
A few hours later Jess found them all in the pub they all liked to frequent, celebrating Burton being thwarted. She quite distraught. "Matt, she's dead." She blurted out as she slid into the booth next to Becker. The cute computer expert had a few documents in her hands.
"I know she's dead, we sent her back more than a hundred years." He said, too calmly.
"Not like this, she didn't even make it a year." Jess set the papers down on the table.
It was a printout of a newspaper article. The headline was 'Lady Merchant dies during childbirth.' The date wasn't even a year from when they sent her back.
"That's horrible," Abby said, "I really liked her."
"That's not her," Matt told them abruptly, "She couldn't have a baby."
"How do you know that?" Connor inquired.
"She told me. She was very firm about it. That Emily has to be one of her husbands cousins or a sister in law."
Jess raised an eyebrow at him, "I checked the death certificate, it's her. See?" She laid the second paper on the table. It was a death certificate from Court Street Hospital and it clearly listed Alistair Merchant as her husband . Matt picked it up slowly and looked it over.
"It is her." He looked as upset as he ever let himself look, "She was so sure."
"How could she be?" Abby asked, "I mean, back then they didn't have much in the way of medical technology."
The team managed a four way glance at each other and then as one focused in on the shocked man that was still holding the death certificate.
Matt looked up sadly and met their eyes. "She had a daughter once, the baby died right after she was born. She told me she lost every other baby early in the pregnancy. She was positive she would never carry another one to term."
"That's a pretty personal discussion to have." Connor observed his friend closely across the table. Abby and himself had never talked about something like that, not even when they were trapped in the past.
"We were close." Matt replied abruptly. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to be bad company now." He stood up and left before the others could say anything to him.
"That's pretty damn sad." Abby commented as they watched his retreating back.
The next day Jess was holed up in the ARC's small medical wing talking to the only doctor about the revelations of the previous nights. "Have there been any other cases of people suddenly healing after traveling through an anomaly?"
"No, but we don't have very many woman that have been through an anomaly. Helen Cutter, Abby Matlain and Emily Merchant have spent the most time through one and I don't know if Abby has even thought of having children."
"It's very odd." Jess agreed with him. "If the anomalies could heal or speed healing we would have noticed something before now."
"Absolutely." Dr. Jenkins appeared lost in though for a moment, "Unless the problem with Mrs. Merchant was fixed all on its own."
Jess scoffed, "It was Victorian times. They didn't even wash their hands. I looked up that hospital that she died in, they had a ninety percent mortality rate on the labor and delivery floor. She never had a chance. Nearly all the woman and babies contracted what they called milk fever." She snorted with derision, "It was just infection!"
"They wouldn't have known." He spun around to the computer and punched up Emily's medical file. "Her blood type is A neg."
"So?"
"So if her husbands blood type is big D positive and she was sensitized to it during the birth of her only child, then any subsequent pregnancies wouldn't survive if the fetus was big D positive."
Jess was completely lost at the medical jargon, "Huh? What's big D?"
Dr. Jenkins took pity on her, "If the antigen site big D is present on the red cells then the person is big D positive. It's the positive or negative in blood types. Just trust me, if the fetuses blood type was different from her, and it would be because positive is dominant over negative, then she was completely right, she couldn't carry another baby to term unless the father changed."
"Can you explain that again please?"
The doctor pulled out a note pad and started to actually use a diagram to try and make Jess understand. He drew a big circle, "See, this represents a red cell."
"Okay, got that."
He drew capitol A's all over the circle. "These represent an antigen site called 'A'."
"Right. I'm still following you."
"There is no little d antigen. If a person doesn't have the D site then they are negative. So this cell is blood type A negative."
Jess pursed her lips as she looked at the picture. "Oh! I understand now." Her brow furrowed, "I think."
He sighed and drew another circle, this one with B's and D's all over it. "This one represents B positive." He pointed to the 'B'. "B," and then the capitol 'D'. "Positive. Get it? No capitol D, negative." Then Dr. Jenkins drew a larger circle around his two blood cells. "This space here is the fluid the cells float around in. It's called serum."
She rolled her eyes at him, "I know what serum is."
"So you know what's in it?" He waggled his eyebrows at her.
"No." She admitted sheepishly.
"I thought not. Floating around in the serum is an antibody. It's the opposite of whatever antigen the person has. This type A person has Anti-B antibodies. This type B person has Anti-A."
"What does this have to do with Emily?"
"I'm getting to that. The antibodies bind with the antigen site of the same type. Anti-A bonds to A, anti-B bonds to B and-"
"And anti-O bonds to O!"
"Actually no, there isn't an anti-O, that's just how we write the absence of A or B."
"This seems overly complicated." Jess objected.
"That's just how it works," Dr. Jenkins assured her. "O used to be called C back in the day. They switched it because O is how we write negative in blood banking."
Jess blinked and tried not to be distracted by trivia. This was confusing enough as it is.
"When you say bond, what exactly do you mean?"
"Attack. Destroy. It's what antibodies do, they destroy any cell they perceive as foreign in an effort to protect the person. Are you following me?"
Jess was staring intently at the simple sketch and nodded firmly. "I think so."
"Emily's first child was a positive blood type and she is a negative. During the delivery, she was sensitized to her child's Big D antigens, that made own body produce the big D antibody."
"Wouldn't that effect her?"
"No, you're forgetting, there isn't a D antigen site on A negative blood. Emily didn't have anything for the antibody to react too. But with each pregnancy the antibody attacked the fetuses body, resulting in a miscarriage." Dr. Jenkins tried to make Jess understand, "The problem still exists today but it can be treated easily with an injection of synthetic antibodies that wouldn't harm the fetus and will keep the mothers body from producing real antibodies."
"So her baby's father wasn't her husband?"
"I suspect not. Something could have happened to her on her way home." Dr. Jenkins pointed out cautiously, "How far from her house was that anomaly?"
"Not even a mile. Abby was teaching her martial arts, I think there's a simpler solution."
"Yes?"
"I'll tell you later. Can I keep this sketch?"
Dr. Jenkins waved her off, "As you like. I can always make another!"
Jess barely heard him, she was barreling down the hallway to her computer. It only took her a few minutes to locate Matt, in one of the small rooms off the range dismantling and cleaning guns.
She didn't even knock. It wasn't like it was intended to be a private room anyway. The little workroom had a long table in the middle and benches on both sides so that several people could work at once. Matt was the only one in there at the moment. He had several guns dismantled and scattered all over the table.
"Jess, what's going on?"
"Nothing, I mean something, but not an anomaly," She stammered as she sat down across from Matt. "What's your blood type?" Jess demanded earnestly.
"Why?" He was quite put off by her odd behavior.
"It's important, just tell me!" She insisted, "Please Matt."
"It's type O. Why?"
"Is it O positive or O negative?" He was still looking at her like she had lost her mind.
"O negative. Why?"
"Oh Matt, did you sleep with Emily?"
He shut down totally, "That is absolutely none of your business! I'm busy here, if you don't have something relevant to tell me then please leave."
"It was your baby." Jess blurted out.
"You can't know that." He hissed right back at her, like he hadn't spent the last twenty four hours pondering that.
"I can, I can prove it, if you slept with her then it was your baby."
Matt sighed heavily and set the part down he had been cleaning. "All right, so what if it was mine? It was one time the day before she left and she thought she couldn't get pregnant at all."
"That's how I can prove it was yours." Jess laid out the diagram and started to repeat the explanation that Dr. Jenkins had told her. Matt listened politely through it all.
"So I killed her then? Why'd you rush in here to tell me that? Lester already refused to let me go fetch her back here."
"You asked him?" Jess's heart skipped at beat at how romantic that was.
Matt explained bitterly "First thing this morning. He said he was sorry she had died so soon but she was meant to be in that time and I couldn't go mucking about in the time line. He said given my personal history I should understand that."
Jess reached across and gently touched his hand, "she wasn't supposed to die then, she couldn't get pregnant then and we changed it by sending her back at all."
Ten minutes later found them both in Lester's office.
"No." He repeated before Jess could explain anything. "It's tragic and I did like her but she wasn't meant to be in this time."
"You're not understanding me, she dies in childbirth because of me. I've already altered the past, the only way to make it right is to bring her back here."
Lester sighed deeply. "We can't open an anomaly to the proper time."
Matt took a deep breath and deliberately forgot all the promises he had made to his dad.
"Actually, we can."
"This is amazing!" Connor crowed as he examined the tattoo that crossed Matt's back.
"I had no idea, I thought it was just some Celtic knot thing."
"That was the idea," Matt grunted from the exam table. "In case I ever needed a way back, there's your equations."
"This is truly amazing, look Abby, I really am a genius!"
She was a bit proud of her boyfriend, "I always knew you were bright."
"If we can get to the point." Lester said dryly, interrupting the Connor Temple love fest,
"Can you build a device?"
"Yeah, I can. It'll reopen an anomaly and keep it open for twelve hours. It looks like-" Connor started to transpose the symbols disguised in the tattoo onto a dry erase board,
"we can reopen any anomaly as many times as we need too, it just has to be closed for twelve hours between openings."
"And this won't lead to the end of the world?" The short British man insisted on an answer. Connor looked up from his board for a second to reassure the boss.
"No, I don't see how, as long as we don't go back and start trying to make the world a better place. Emily is a special case, we shouldn't have allowed her to go back anyway. What if she had patented Microsoft and Google? Image the copyright battles her heirs could fight." Connor gabbed on as he was already starting to shift the symbols around on the board in a way that only made sense to him.
"Are you finished with me?"
"Yeah mate, you can put your shirt back on now."
"How long?"
"Maybe two days, maybe three to build this. I suggest you lot get us some period clothes to wear. We can't go fetch her in our regular ninja outfits." Connor grinned at the crowd in his lab. "I don't think black turtlenecks were around back then." Jess and Abby immediately started to talk about potential disguises.
"I can't have you lot all scattered about," Lester told them sternly raining all over the rescue parade, "We still have to be capable of covering an incursion. You'll have to do your shopping tonight after you get off work."
They all agreed with him immediately, but Lester kept talking. "I'm officially classifying this as a field trip to test the new device and un-muck the time line. Volunteers only. I can't assign a regular team to this outing."
Matt glanced around the room and grinned at Lester, "Don't worry sir, we have it covered."
In the end it took Connor four days to build the little triggering device that would reopen an anomaly. It was just as well. He was still putting the finishing touches on it when the weekend rolled around. All the antique shops that Jess found were closed by the time they got off work so they really needed the weekend to prepare. In the end they ended up cleaning out an expensive costume shop in London.
Sunday morning found the volunteers gathered in the prison. Connor, Becker and Matt were wearing what was billed as, 'working man's clothes,' Abby and Jess were wearing period dresses, not tavern wench, even though Connor most sincerely requested.
Abby's was different shades of brown and gray, with long sleeves and she insisted it covered as much skin as a burka. Jess's was slightly more elaborate, with a little green and gold on trim. They were supposed to be working dresses that wouldn't attract attention.
Jess had also found hats for them all that covered their ears, and their ear pieces. For this mission they had switched to a much smaller model that hopefully wouldn't be noticed. She was quite excited to be going through an anomaly finally.
Lester had actually come out to see them off. "You had better be back by Monday." He half threatened them. "Don't worry sir, it shouldn't take too long to find Emily and bring her back." Matt told him as he checked his weapon.
They didn't have time to disguise their weapons but they weren't facing creatures so they were bringing tazors and pistols with rubber bullets. They shouldn't have a reason to kill anybody but it was always nice to be prepared.
Becker had live ammo in his backpack, just in case.
Without further ado, Matt stepped through the anomaly, followed by Becker, Jess, Abby and bringing up the rear was Connor. They came out in a forest that looked suspiciously like the forest of Dean.
Becker and Abby immediately marked the position of the anomaly on their maps independently of each other, just in case.
Connor aimed his little dating computer at the night sky and waited a moment as it registered the position of the stars. "It's four months before the date listed in the death certificate, so we're early enough, and four hours before dawn." That had been his one fear, that the anomaly would open after it was too late.
"Good." Matt consulted the compass on his wrist. "This way." He led them off to the north west. After only a few hundred yards they found a bridle path and they followed it.
It only took about fifteen minutes of walking before they came around a hill and an enormous mansion popped into view down the hill.
"Wow." Jess said, impressed. "I didn't know she lived somewhere like that. There wasn't any information on the house that I could find."
"This just got more complicated." Connor said unnecessarily, "We'll be spotted for sure if we go in there looking for her."
Matt and Becker were scanning the perimeter of the cleared out lands below them.
"We'll set up a camp near the treeline and keep the house under surveillance tomorrow. We'll go in tomorrow night and get her."
"And I get to try plan B." Abby reminded them in a whisper. "I always wanted to be a scullery maid."
Connor chuckled as they melted into the forest to find a hide.
They ended up holing up near a hollow tree about forty feet in from the tree line. The brush was thick enough here that there wasn't any horse trails for several hundred yards. It was easy enough to crawl through the brambles to the roots of an ancient oak tree and watch the manor house. They could only really see the back of the house and one side. If they scooted a little ways down the treeline they could also watch the front but there wasn't anywhere to hide to watch the fourth side.
Just after the sun came up they watched as the household came alive. Men walked back and forth to the stables bringing out horses and cows. Pails of milk disappeared into the house. Goats and sheep were turned out and driven into different paddocks farther away.
"I'd better get my maid on." Abby whispered to them as she worked herself backwards. Connor followed her to their whispers of 'Good luck.'
Abby stood up when she was far enough back and waited for Connor to join her.
"Be careful Abby." He said as he hugged her and kissed her goodbye. "Don't get into trouble."
"I won't." She leaned into him for another few seconds before pulling away. "I gotta go." He watched her wistfully as she carefully made her way past the brambles and headed towards the road.
Connor flicked his earpiece on. "Abby, can you hear me?"
"Yes Con, I can hear you. I'll let you know when I get near the road."
The three man one woman team all watched the manor house intently, looking for the least sign of where Emily was. Matt was terrified she was on the other side of the house and they wouldn't even see her.
Jess and Becker had moved to where they could see the front of the house good and Matt and Connor were still in the original position watching the side and the back.
Abby called them and told them she was getting on the road. After a while she came into view, trudging up the road towards the house. It was on a short lane that was several hundred yards away from the main road.
She looked the very picture of desperate young woman needing a job. She had a small satchel that if they inspected it would only contain a change of clothes, a hair brush, and a period bible, also from the costume shop. In the lining of the stained, nasty, spare nickers was another earpiece for Emily, if she found her.
She had stimulated the grottyness of the knickers with a bit of lemon juice and melted chocolate. Even knowing what the stains really were, she was grossed out by them.
Some of the men working the livestock looked at her as she approached. Connor saw their expressions and tried to suppress the worry rising up in his throat. One of them came over to the stone fence to talk to her. Abby tried to look earnest enough as she inquired about the possibilities of getting a position here.
The man that came over to talk to her called something to the others then hopped over the fence. He took Abby's arm very possessively and led her around the back of the house. He towed her right up to the door and pulled her inside.
They all heard the man send someone inside for a man called Dutch. Apparently he did the hiring around here.
"Dutch'll like you, I'm sure of it, you look like a hard worker." The man from the field told Abby confidentially. From how clear his voice was he had to be very near Abby's face.
After a minute an older man wearing a nice suit came down the stairs. "You're seeking a position?" He asked bluntly. "Do you have references?"
"No sir." Abby said politely. "I'm widowed, and I've lost my house, my late husband owed a lot of money."
The house manager sniffed. "A debtor?"
Abby hung her head, "Yes sir. We were only married two years before the consumption
took him. Then I lost everything. I've been traveling for a few weeks now, looking for work." She tried to look desperate. It must have worked.
"I don't have anything open upstairs, and you're not qualified to be a ladies maid anyway. I can put you in the kitchen. We'll try you out for a few days for room and board. If you work out then you'll be paid three shillings a month, and two new dresses a year." He managed to make that sound like the most generous salary in the world.
"Oh thank you sir." Abby gushed at him. 'We've come a long way.' She thought to herself. At ARC pay she made more in an hour than a woman in this time made in a year.
"Call me Dutch." He introduced himself. "Come with me." He led her through a short hallway to a shockingly hot room that was the kitchen. Abby had forgotten how much heat a single oven could put out if there was no AC. There was actually three ovens, and a fireplace hearth that had bread rising on racks directly in front of it.
"Cook!" Dutch bellowed, "Cook where are you?" A very frazzled fat woman came walking out of a pantry with a side of lamb in her hands.
"This is your new scullery maid, what's your name girl?"
"Abby," She said quickly, and decided to have a little fun with this, "Abby Temple."
Up on the hill Connor started grinning like a loon and Jess nudged him in the side, "I think she wants you to move a bit faster mate."
"I can take a hint." He assured them all before they got back to the business of watching the house.
It was nearly noon before they got their first glimpse of Emily. Connor spotted her first passing in front of one of the third floor windows. They watched the window for another twenty minutes before they saw her again. She opened the doors and walked out onto the balcony. Even in the bulky gown she was wearing it was obvious she was pregnant.
There was a little table and two chair on the balcony. Emily settled into one, oblivious that she was under observation. Connor glanced over at Matt. He was watching Emily with the same intensity he devoted to watching Abby.
Connor grinned. They'd be alright together.
Emily sat out on the balcony sipping tea and enjoying the view. After a while a little maid brought her a tray that was her lunch. They watched her eat and listened to Abby's side of the conversation with the cook and the other scullery maid. They all learned a lot about the exploits of the stable boys and sundry other gossip. It wasn't until after lunch when Emily was sleeping in the chair outside that Abby was able to steer the conversation around to the lady of the house.
"A man on the road told me that the lady Emily was in a family way. Does she need special teas?"
"Oh posh. The master doesn't care. I heard that he doesn't think it's his. After the way she ran off and returned after a year without even saying where she'd been?"
"Gone a whole year? What happened?" Abby asked interested as she washed turnips for supper. The other maid was happy to relay the story and her own personal theory, which was that Emily had run off with a lover who then abandoned her, forcing her to return home.
Emily hadn't said a single word about where she was for the year she was gone. In her life it was three years but here just a single year had passed. Her husband was not pleased.
They got to see a bit of that. It was stretching on towards evening when a man in a waistcoat stomped out onto the balcony and said something sharp. That had to be her husband Alistair. Emily woke suddenly and seeing him standing there rose to her feet.
He said something else harsh to her and she answered him. Even from this distance it was obvious he was angry about something. He balled up his hand and struck her face, spinning her around.
Connor saw Matt move out of the corner of his eye. "No Matt!" Connor dove on him and kept him from pointing his pistol at the house. "You can't hit him from this range. Wait, we'll get him when we get her back." Matt struggled with him for another few moments before acknowledging the truth. He sagged back into the ground.
They turned their attention back to the house. Alistair was gone and Emily was slowly picking herself up from the ground. A maid rushed out of the room and helped her back inside.
Inside the house Abby was rushing frantically around trying to keep up with the directions that the cook was shouting her. Getting dinner cooked and served was just as stressful as being chased by a creature. Finally it was over. They spent another two hours cleaning up the kitchen before Abby was shown to a small nook near the kitchen. She noticed that the door could be barred from the outside.
The cook noticed her noticing. "Don't worry girl, it's only until Dutch is sure you won't steal anything."
"Oh." Abby thought frantically but she couldn't come up with a reason why she had to go outside again before she was standing in the room and the cook was dropping the bar across the door.
"Damn it."
"What is it Abbs?"
"You have to rescue me too. They've locked me in so I don't steal the silverware." She said bitterly. "All I discovered was that the downstairs people don't go upstairs and the master of the house knows that the baby isn't his."
"We figured that last part out ourselves." Connor told her, "We saw Emily sleeping on a balcony for a while before he showed up and punched her. He knocked her clean down to the ground. I think Matt's going to explain that you don't hit a girl before we leave tonight."
"Bet your ass I'm going to explain that." Matt growled over the com. "I'm going to beat his ass so bad he'll be walking sideways."
"Just don't do permanent damage." Abby cautioned him. "We can't jack up history more than we already have, but there's plenty of things we can do that he'll recover from." She growled. "We can take a sock and-"
"Where are you exactly?" Jess asked, getting them back on topic. Abby got her mind off things that don't leave permanent damage and gave them directions around the single part of the house she had been in. "I think that about two would be the best time for a breakout. The manager Dutch is an insomniac and roams around until very late."
"We can handle him." Matt said confidentially, "You get some rest, we'll wake you at two."
"Goodnight then boys." Abby blew out her candle and laid down on the little pallet of blankets on the ground. She only laid there about four seconds before jumping up again and iching. "Lice? There's damned lice? Bugger this." She kicked the blankets into the corner and stretched out on the hard floor as far away from the lice nest as she could get.
Up in the forest they also took turns sleeping, without lice. Jess and Becker went first. Matt and Connor would wake them about ten thirty and then they'd sleep until two. The time didn't pass quickly enough. Jess crashed but Becker couldn't sleep, when it was time to switch Connor got a bit of shut eye but Matt couldn't stop thinking about Emily.
She was so beautiful. She had looked so peaceful sleeping on the balcony until her husband turned up. The thought of that made his blood boil again. He was going to really regret striking her.
Eventually Matt looked at his watch and it was one fifty. Close enough. He shook Connor awake and had him call Abby over the com. "Abby wake up, we're getting ready to move."
They all heard Abby yawn, "I'll be waiting."
Quickly, but silently they moved into the courtyard. There were a few dogs about, but at this late hour they were all piled up asleep in the haystacks near the barn. They were easily avoided.
Becker and Matt approached the balcony where they were going, moving smoothly in a two man team. Connor mimicked them and Jess had seen enough action movies to fake it. It was only about twenty minutes after they had left their perch on the hillside to be in a position to go up the side of the house.
Matt gave Becker a leg up and he grabbed the second floor balcony. The ultra fit man scrambled up to stand on the railing. In moments, he was up on the third floor balcony where they had seen Emily spend so much of her day. He secured a rope and tossed it down.
Matt latched his climber on immediately and clicked in onto low power. In a few seconds he was on his way up. Connor made sure Jess's equipment was attached properly before he indicated to her to start climbing.
She gripped the auto climber tightly and scrambled up making a little more noise than the two professionals but not enough to wake anybody.
Connor was last, and by the time he was standing on the balcony Matt had picked the lock on the balcony doors. Becker rolled up the rope and stowed it. Jess quietly ripped a small length of duct tape off and passed it over. They'd had a lot of time to plot out the next bit.
Matt silently opened the door and they all peered inside. Inside the room it appeared to be a large bedroom/sitting room. There was a table and four chairs in the sitting area near the balcony, beyond that was large bed with a huge canopy.
Unfortunately there were two bodies in the bed. One was clearly Emily, huddled over against the side with the blanket pulled up to her ears. Taking up most of the bed was her wife beating husband Alistair.
Matt crept around to Emily's side while Becker took Alistair's. He had the duct tape in his hands. Matt crouched down beside her, he could see the shadow of the bruise on her face that Alistair had left there that afternoon.
"Emily," he whispered so softly in her ear, "Emily wake up." He reached out to touch her cheek gently. She came awake with a start and looked directly into his eyes. "Matt," she gasped, "You came back for me."
"Yes. Come with me?"
"Yes." Emily carefully slid out of bed, but not carefully enough. Alistair woke up with a start. Becker slammed the tape down on his mouth and grabbed his hands when they came up. One second later he had them zip tied behind his back. Angry Englishman secured, Becker and Connor turned to see how things are going on the other side of the bed.
Emily was pressed firmly against Matt with her arms twined about his neck, he held her as tightly as he could, kissing her with wild abandon.
"I wonder if Abby will kiss me like that when we rescue her?" Connor asked in a stage whisper.
"Dunno. It's terribly romantic." Jess chimed in, completely ignoring the large furious man in the bed that Becker was holding down by the shoulder.
Emily finally broke the kiss, but she merely buried her face in Matt shoulder. He rocked her slowly and whispered something into her ear. This was more embarrassing than watching Connor fumble around Abby for years.
"Can we go rescue my girlfriend now?" Connor bleated.
Matt looked at them all. "Yes. We're going now." Emily moved away from him finally towards a large wardrobe in the corner. Matt watched her intently as she quickly dug out some clothes. Jess followed her into the bathroom, leaving the three men alone with Alistair.
Matt glared at him, but restrained himself from beating a bound man up, even if he did really deserve it.
It didn't take Emily long to change into a dress similar to what she was wearing when Matt had first met her, and watched her walk away into the anomaly. She strode confidentially over to a vanity table and quickly handed a few things to Jess, who stashed them in her satchel.
Now was the fun part. Becker heaved Alistair up to his feet. He was wearing an undershirt and the Victorian equivalent of boxer shorts. Connor reached over and peeled the tape off his lips just as Becker cut the zip tie. They both stashed the trash in their pockets. It wouldn't do to leave evidence.
Matt held up a finger warningly, "Don't shout."
"I'm not stupid enough to shout with three criminals in my home," He rolled his eyes over to Jess, "and their tart."
"My home," Emily whispered softly, "It's my families money that bought this place."
Alistair shifted his gaze to her like a laser beam, "Which one did you run off with originally? Did you jump the fence with all three of them?"
"I didn't run off with anyone!" Emily kept her voice quiet even as she got angry. She moved closer to him and Connor and Becker stepped back, to give them a little space.
He sneered down at her, "That belly says otherwise." Emily raised her hand protectively around her middle. He glared at her, "You are such a whore." Matt was past Emily in one step and decking Alistair before Emily could do more than gasp. One short jab knocked the obnoxious man clean out.
"Tie him up." Matt whispered. "We've wasted enough time here." He turned to Emily and grabbed her hand, "Do you have everything you want to take with you?" She nodded yes.
Connor left Becker and Jess to tie Alistair up with the sheets and moved up beside Matt.
"Abby's here, she got a job as a kitchen maid for the day, they locked her up a room so she wouldn't steal anything."
"I know where she is." Emily said immediately, "Is he tied up good?"
"Yeah, he's still out also. I can't gag him in case he vomits." Becker rolled the trussed up man onto his side and propped him there with pillows. Emily came over and glared down at him. "So pitiful," she whispered, "lets go."
Silently they followed her through the darkened house, tiptoeing down the stairs. They were nearly to the servant's quarters when they rounded the corner and came face to face with Dutch. He was stunned to see a large group of people in front of him, but he opened his mouth to yell thief anyway.
"Shut up!" Emily snapped at him. Obeying her was such a deep habit that his jaw snapped shut immediately. "Grab him." She ordered her group of men. Before Dutch could do more than gasp in outrage Becker had him face down on the floor with a knife to his throat. "Don't scream." He whispered to the terrified man in his scariest voice. Dutch couldn't see it, but Becker was grinning.
Connor helped enthusiastically bind his hands and gag him with his own night shirt, quickly sliced into useful pieces. Matt stayed beside Emily and they were whispering back and forth, Dutch was watching carefully, noting how close to each other they were standing.
The Master was right! He had been cuckolded!
They left him tethered to a heavy wardrobe. "Don't struggle," Becker advised him, "If you do you'll pull that thing down over top of you and be crushed." Dutch nodded agreement, he didn't care who the adulteress ran off with. He certainly wasn't going to risk his life to keep her here!
"The excitement never ends." Emily commented as they went on their way.
They walked around the corner of the hallway where Abby was just in time to see someone slip into her room. "Connor?" They heard her say before the unmistakeable sound of someone being slapped flew down the corridor and Abby's cry of outrage.
All three men bolted down the hallway and shined their torches into Abby's little cell to see her unleash a little modern kickboxing on a Victorian man that apparently thought that one slap was going to subdue the pretty new scullery maid.
Abby belted him with two quick palm strikes to the bridge of his nose to stun him before kicking him full in the face with a roundhouse. He spun around onto Connor's fist coming the other way. He collapsed, unconscious. Connor kicked him in the ribs for good measure.
"Kick a man when he's down? That's the best time to do it." Becker declared. "Who is he?" Becker nudged him with his steel toed boots just a little firmer than necessary to roll him over.
Emily looked at him, "Jacob Mocker, he works in the stables. I didn't know he was a rapist also."
"We could cure that for him." Abby fished Connor's pocket knife out of his back pocket and flicked it open with one smooth flip of her wrist. "It's not that difficult."
"No. If you won't let me shoot Alistair then you can't cut this one." Matt told her, "We can't screw up the time line, remember?"
"Yeah." She kissed Connor briefly and gave him his knife back before turning to Emily.
"Good to have you back."
Becker broke in, "Reunion's later, we've got to go." He nodded to Emily. She shut the door and locked it again, "Let him explain why he's locked in there instead of you. Were you really going to shoot Alistair?" She sounded amazed, and surprised.
"He hit you." Matt said simply, and the look they exchanged was so intense Jess actually shivered. Becker noted that, there was a distinct possibility she was going to be feeling frisky later. All the better, missions and adrenaline and accomplishing a good deed added up to major boyfriend points.
Emily again led the way to the small kitchen door that Abby had being going in and out of all day.
They walked out and Becker even shut the door behind him while they quickly took a roundabout way out of the yard that avoided the dogs. Once they were in the lane they started to jog.
"Emily, are we going too fast for you?" Matt asked her, concerned.
"To get out of here I can go as fast as I have too." She said grimly. "He'll have them chasing us as soon as he wakes. They'll have horses."
"We'd better hurry then." They headed into the forest and started climbing the hills when the lights started to be lit in the manor house and shouting filled the air behind them.
"He's awake then, lets go faster."
"We'll get there in plenty of time." Matt told her as they hurried along as fast as they could in the woods. "The anomaly won't close for another eight or nine hours."
"Are you certain of that?"
"Positive." Connor almost bragged. "It turns out that your boyfriend has been holding out on us."
"Beg pardon?"
"Not now Conn," Abby said, "We've got escape first."
"Right, tell you later Emily."
After twenty minutes they came to where the anomaly was floating in the sky.
"Ladies first," Becker said gallantly.
Jess grinned at him and walked through, followed shortly by Abby and Connor. Emily walked in with Matt's hand firmly in hers and finally Becker took one last look around before following.
When he came through he saw a team waiting to lock the anomaly.
"Go ahead." He told them. He didn't even look as he heard the anomaly close.
"Lester's pissed you lot missed work Monday. We had an incursion but we handled it. He's still pissed. You're his favorites." The other team leader teased Becker, rolling the word 'favorites' around like they were all still in second grade and it was 'teachers pet'.
"He says you'd better be there today, if you know what's good for you. Except for you Matt," He jerked his head towards Matt and Emily. "Lester said you can have the day off to get Emily settled."
"That's awful generous of him." Connor managed to be sarcastic even while running his hand up and down Abby's back. "It's almost three thirty in the morning. I'm going to the ARC, that way I'll at least be there at seven, even if I'm not awake." Connor declared to the room. Abby followed him out the door, already chatting about the things she went through the day before.
Matt grabbed Emily's hand. "Where do you want to go?"
"I don't care, as long as you're there." She told him softly.
"Come on then. Let's go to my flat." Matt led her by the hand out of the prison. The
others had already left, Becker and Jess were talking about getting waffles to kill a few hours.
The second team was busy bagging their stuff up and their chatter faded behind the pair as they walked towards the parking lot.
"I suppose it's our flat now." Matt corrected himself as he looked down at the dark haired woman by his side. She grinned up at him, "I suppose so." Emily agreed.
"We'll have to get another one. It's not big enough for children."
"I don't know about that, they don't take up much space for a year or two." She smiled,
"I rather enjoyed the view."
Matt walked around the car and opened the door for her, "My lady," He said formally, ruining it with a smile. "Your chariot awaits."
In the car the silence only lasted a second before they were in each others arms, they kissed gently for a few seconds before Emily gently broke the kiss. "Uncomfortable." She explained with a glance down at her protruding belly that was pressing into the center console.
"Ah." Matt cradled her face in his hand for a moment before reluctantly turning the car on and focused on driving home.
"You'll have to teach me to do that." Emily told him firmly, "I've got to be able to get around in this world."
"Of course, I daresay that you'll be doing everything anyone here can do before I'll be able to blink."
Satisfied, Emily settled back and looked out the window.
They were nearly there when it occurred to Matt he didn't know the first thing about pregnant woman. "Do you need me to stop at the store?"
"No. I mean, yes there is a great many things I'll need but nothing right now."
"All right."
Back at his flat he followed Emily in the door. She made a beeline for the bathroom and he dug out a pair of sweat pants he could use as pajamas while she was busy in there. He didn't know what she would want to wear to bed but she wasn't shy about digging through his dresser.
When she came out he went in, to brush his teeth before bed and give her a little privacy. He heard her rustling around out there and then heard her dress land in a soft heap on the floor. Matt peeked out the door.
She was lying in bed, wearing one of his shirts and waiting patiently for him. He didn't have any interest in delaying it. He flicked the light off in the bathroom and saw her openly flicking her eyes up and down his body.
"Like what you see?" He gently teased her as he climbed into bed.
"Yes. You?" He couldn't help but notice she held one hand possessively over her stomach.
"I love what I see." Matt slid across the bed and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm so sorry I told you to go back." He captured her lips in another kiss. "I shouldn't have."
"You couldn't have known." Emily snuggled into him in a way that she had never done with her husband.
Matt shifted around so that she was laying in his arms and he reached across her to flick off the lamp. He felt her lean up and kiss his chest as he stretched to reach the light. Matt settled back down with one arm on either side of her, but with most of his body off to the side. She slid her arms up around his neck and pulled him in for another long kiss.
He felt himself get aroused by the woman under him and discretely shifted his hips so she wouldn't notice. "You're so beautiful." He groaned out when she finally let him breathe again.
She did notice. He felt her delicate hand slid down his back to his hip. "We can, if you like." Emily whispered. "It won't hurt anything."
That was all the permission he needed.
Many hours later he woke up when she slipped back into bed. He caught a flash of pale skin and brown bruises. The inconsistency of it pulled him fully awake. "Emily." He gasped, "Did I-"
"No." She replied firmly while getting comfortable right up against his side. "He did."
In the bright light of day Matt carefully examined her face. The bruise on her cheek that he saw her get yesterday was coloring up into a doozy, and another nearly faded one near her chin that he had mistaken for a bit of dirt or a shadow last night showed him that her husband was a right bastard. Her last husband.
She lifted her arm out from under the blanket and touched his cheek. "I'm safe now."
He grabbed her hand and kissed her palm even as his eyes were drawn to another set of bruises on her upper arm that corresponded exactly to where a large man's hands would grab and shake.
She saw him looking. "I got a matching one on the other side." She said ruefully. "I couldn't remember all of Abby's martial arts at the proper moment."
"I'm so sorry."
"Stop apologizing. We've got to talk anyway."
"All right." Matt arranged them so that they were spooning in the bed. Her naked body was quite pleasant pressed against him. He could really get to love this.
"I don't know if the baby is yours."
"It is. Jess proved it, it's complicated but basically...I'll just let her explain."
"You're certain?"
"Positive. But, I would have come back for you anyway, even if it wasn't."
"What am I going to do in this world?" She asked, nervously.
"What did you do in the other one?" Matt countered her.
She snorted, "I was a rich man's oldest daughter. I was largely decorative."
"You're so much more than that. You have a ton of practical experience surviving the creatures and anomalies. With a little training you could work in the ARC. Unless there's something else you'd like to do?"
"I don't know. I don't know what my options are."
Matt took a deep breath. "I think I love you. I was completely miserable without you and I'm pretty sure that's love."
"According to what I've read, yes, that could possibly be love." Emily teased him.
"I don't want you to feel trapped."
"I don't." She responded while buried against his side with one of his arms slung protectively over her side.
"Someday, would you possibly consider, will you marry me?"
"Yes-"
"You don't have to answer now, I don't want you go feel like you have to do anything-"
"Yes." She said again, slightly louder. "I want to marry you."
He was floored. "Are you certain?"
"Don't make me repeat myself again Matt," She threatened him with a smile, "I regretted walking through the anomaly the instant I did it. I turned around to come back and to hell with what you wanted, but it spun shut behind me."
Matt dropped a kiss on the top of her head and felt a fresh pang of guilt for sending her back, "All right then. We'll start planning a wedding just as soon as we get out of bed. Wait a moment." Matt slipped away from her and padded over to the closet. He rummaged for a minute before sliding back into the bed with something in his hand. Just in case, he had found the time for a little shopping.
"I love you Emily Merchant. Will you marry me?" He slipped the little gold band with a single diamond on it gently onto her finger.
She gasped and looked as if she might cry. "Yes. Oh yes." Matt leaned over and caught her in a kiss, full of love and a promise of a happier future for both of them.
FIN