Another Show? Chapter 2

The weekend away had done them both good Connor thought. It was good to see his Mum, and time had flown looking at old photographs, laughing and sharing stories. Coming back to London late Sunday had made for a hard start to Monday morning though.

Connor's reverie was interrupted abruptly by Lester's roar, "Connor, you are not supposed to be out in the field!"

Lester stalked into Connor's lab and slammed a report down on his desk so hard that it made the picture frame shake and threaten to fall over. Connor rescued the picture and set it upright securely on his desk. Lester glanced down at the picture of the couple, his glare softening at the memory of Abby in white satin and Connor in tails.

"Connor," Lester began, "The field report for the anomaly alert on Wednesday has your name in it. You were out…in…the…field… expressly against medical orders."

"Well, Becker's out and his backup was delayed…" Connor began.

"Stop!" Lester ordered, "No excuses! Even though we are short of staff, you are not medically cleared to go out in the field…a history of concussions and three bouts of unconsciousness in one day puts you at risk..."

"Lester," interrupted Connor, "it's been years since New Dawn, and I haven't hit me head since then."

"The Chief Medical Officer hasn't cleared you yet," huffed Lester. And he thought privately, I have no intentions of letting that happen any time soon.

"You don't want anyone else going out in the field against medical orders, do you?" asked Lester pointedly.

Connor looked up, his brown eyes suddenly serious. "No, of course not Lester," he replied. "But, we can't send a team out without enough…"

The conversation was interrupted as Abby poked her head through the doorway. "Conn," she called, "Are you ready?"

"Oh, yes Abby," said Connor as he rose to stand. "Lester, can we finish this discussion after we get back?"

"Hmph!"snorted Lester, "Far be it for me to have work interrupt your appointments."

It was a short drive from the ARC to the doctor's clinic. Connor felt a little out of place being the only man present in the waiting room, but soon they were ushered into a more private space.

The technician greeted them warmly, "First time, yeah?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Abby with a small smile, her blue eyes glowing.

"Well, you can change into a robe over there," directed the technician, "and then get up on the table for the exam."

Connor leaned quietly against the wall, staring at all the strange equipment. As Abby returned, he reached out a hand to help her climb up the step to the table. Connor stepped to one side as Abby stretched out on her back and the technician came forward holding a tube of gel.

"This will be a bit cold," she warned.

Abby hissed as the gel landed on her abdomen. The technician gave her a conspiratorial grin as she touched the transducer to the gel. "Let's just spread this around a bit, and then take a look," she said. Reaching to one side, she started flipping switches on the equipment beside her.

The monitor flickered and blinked, then lit up the entire screen. Abby and Connor both stared.

The technician continued talking, pointing out and describing various parts of the image, "It looks like you are about sixteen weeks now… that sound right?"

The sudden pause in the technician's monologue brought Abby and Connor to the awareness that a response was required. Tearing their eyes away from the monitor, they looked at each other. Abby had to blink quickly to clear her eyes, while Connor swallowed hard. Their matching smiles widened.

"Well, we were thinking three months or so," began Abby, watching as Connor's eyes returned to the screen, "but the doctor wanted a better estimate, so..."

"Look" Connor exclaimed. A tiny hand turned towards them, fingers spread as if waving. "I could watch this all day."