Disclaimer: Primeval and all its characters belong to someone else.

Double Wedding

Chapter Seven- Worries

Connor was up early the next morning. He had to go back to work, but Abby still had a few more days before she started her new job working in the botany lab. He gently kissed her forehead whilst she was still asleep and stood there for a few moments just drinking in the sight of her before he turned to go to the kitchen to have a quick breakfast. A thought had occurred to him and he wanted some time on his own to reflect on it, so he'd decided to go in extra early and sit in his lab for a bit and consider the notion that had suddenly come into his head.

He'd woken up about five o'clock with a splitting headache, and the feeling that something had happened. He'd sat up and looked around the dark room once his eyes had adjusted to the lack of light and caught sight of Abby next to him. He'd felt such a rush of love for her that the idea had popped unbidden into his head. This was the woman he'd loved for what seemed like forever. This was the woman who was having his baby. This was the woman who took his breath away each and every time he saw her. This was the woman who wouldn't let him give up after the mess he'd made over New Dawn. This was the woman he was going to marry…but when? It had been enough for them both just to be engaged, but Connor now found the thought that he wanted to call her his wife nagging at him, and it wouldn't go away.

He needed to think this through, hence he was going into the ARC earlier than usual to lock himself away and ponder on the voice telling him to do this. No one would bother him there unless Matt came to check up on what he was doing, as he now had a habit of doing. He couldn't blame him, not after New Dawn, but it didn't make him feel good. With the thought of Abby in a wedding dress twirling, looking even more beautiful than she already did, he crept out of the bedroom and began to go through the lounge towards the kitchen, where someone was already up going by the sounds of the radio playing very quietly.

As he tramped through the dark room, he felt something crunch under his feet. What on earth…. he wondered, hoping he hadn't inadvertently knocked something over. He reached down and picked up a sliver of glass. What was that from? He stood up, looking at it and then began to look around the room. He suddenly noticed the mess in the room and the destroyed television.

"What the…?" he said quietly to himself and he approached the TV and stared at it.

The kitchen door opened and he jumped when Becker strode out, dressed in his joggers. When Becker saw Connor, he stopped and looked at him for a minute.

"Do you remember what happened?" he asked Connor. "How you smashed the TV?"

"What? Me? No...I don't know anything about it! Just came in here and saw it…I didn't…you can't blame this one on me, Becker!"

Becker opened his mouth to tell Connor what had happened the night before, but his mobile suddenly rang. It was one of his men who needed to ask Becker a question about security. As he finished the call, he turned back to speak to Connor, but he had already gone. Great, thought Becker, now he's mad with me- so much for being trained in counselling his men! He'd have to handle this better later, but for now he needed to shower and get ready for work. He'd let Connor cool off and then have another try.

~~oOOo~~

Connor sat in his lab, not actually working, just letting his thoughts wash over him. Was he ready to be a husband- to commit his life to Abby? That was easy- yes! He'd already committed to her, practically from day one. The only other woman he'd ever looked at was Caroline, and he'd only done that because he thought Abby didn't want him, and tried his best to move on. That hadn't worked too well, he smiled ruefully, Caroline hadn't really cared about him at all and for his part- he could only think about Abby when he was kissing her.

Was Abby ready to commit to him? Now, that was harder to answer. The old niggling doubts came pouring back as he pondered. She had stuck by him through New Dawn…made him come back from the brink of despair to return to their own time. Could that had been because they needed him to help stop what he'd initiated, or had she really wanted him. Because she loved him? Maybe, he considered, but surely she'd have tried to stop anyone from remaining in that desolate place where they'd obviously not survive very long. Maybe she'd said that when it was all over she'd ask him to marry her because she knew that's what he wanted? She had hesitated when he'd asked her to repeat it once everything was sorted, but he thought she could have been teasing.

He remembered Jenny's wedding and that awful moment when he blurted out 'we should get married here!' Abby had nearly choked on her drink. That could have been the surprise of it though, in truth the words had just tumbled out of his mouth unbidden and he'd even shocked himself!

He fought with himself for a few minutes before deciding. Yes, he concluded despite all that, he did think she was ready to commit to him…to them. She'd fought to protect him from Philip and he'd been the stupid one not to listen. But she had carried on fighting. She hadn't given up on him. All her actions since they'd got together showed she loved him too. No it was his own insecurities that made him wonder. Abby was a strong woman. She wouldn't do anything she didn't want to.

So…that left him with that idea. To ask her if they could set a date, a date for the very near future…perhaps before the baby was born! He really couldn't wait any longer to call her his wife! He was going to do it, he finally made his mind up. He'd have to overcome his stupid habit of becoming tongue tied and take her somewhere really romantic- maybe a trip on the river, and ask her. He finally smiled, a weight off his shoulders now that he'd made his decision.

His mind made up, he began to potter about with his new project for a while and as he scrabbled about amongst the mess on his table, he jabbed his finger with something sharp.

"Ow!" he cried, putting his finger to his mouth, and sucking it. "That hurt!" He looked to see what had pricked him, and when he saw a small shard of plastic, he picked it up and looked at it from all angles. It suddenly reminded him of the piece of glass he'd stood on this morning. What had happened? Becker had obviously thought he'd done it. He was usually blamed for this sort of thing. He recalled the time when a chunk of the sun cage had fallen off. Sarah had blamed him, even though it had been because a spanner had been pulled by the magnetism and broke a part of the sun cage as it was drawn through the anomaly.

The door to the lab quietly swung open and Matt entered. "Hey!" he said. Connor nodded in return, continuing with his work. Matt watched for a few minutes. "You alright?" he added.

"Yeah, Matt…this is going to be awesome- if I can get it to work. The anom…"

"That's great, mate. Actually I came to ask you if you'd like to join us for a drink this evening...you know, guy's night out."

"Oh er…"

"The girls are having a girly night too. Come on, mate we're all going."

"Well, OK. But just for a while, yeah? I've already got a headache, don't want to have a worse one!"

"How bad is it? Need a medic?"

"No, it's fine. I woke up with it. Funny, I've got a bit of a lump too. Don't know how that happened."

Matt looked concerned, but just clapped Connor on the shoulder and left the room. A night out, thought Connor, yeah...that would be good…

To Be Continued…