Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval or its characters.

Secrets

Chapter 10 – Mummy

The school holidays came around and Jess started taking Lily and Maddie to work with her.

Originally she had only intended to take Maddie with her, as day care centres remain open over the break. But once Lily learnt that Maddie was getting to go to work with Jess, she wanted to go as well. After some pouting on Lily's part, Jess agreed to take Lily with them on the condition that she return to childcare when Maddie returned to school.

Lester had kicked up a huff at seeing the girls at the ARC, stating that it was a workplace and not a day care facility. But that changed once Lily turned her big brown eyes on him, and he agreed to let them stay so long as they didn't cause any trouble.

So far, the arrangement was working out well.

Maddie would spend her days with Abby and Matt, splitting her time between the two of them. While she was with Abby she would help out in the menagerie and the Reptile Expert would teach her about the creatures in her care at the ARC, as well as some of the ones she had tended to when working at the zoo. When with Matt, Maddie would help tend to his plants and the man would teach her about the different stages of plant life, as well as the other aspects of botany. Occasionally Abby would let Maddie help feed the herbivores, and those were the days Maddie left with a huge grin on her face.

ARC employees would often remark how much like Becker the young girl was. Maddie was often quiet and reserved, hiding what she felt, a habit she must have picked up from her father. It was hard to get her to interact with anyone other than Jess, Matt, and Abby. It was these similarities that prompted Matt to point out that despite being so similar to Becker, Maddie was still a very different person from him. Sure she had some of his personality traits and habits, but her attitude to the animals and the environment was very different from the Captain's.

Lily, on the other hand, was constantly doted on by Becker's soldiers. Jess often caught them sneaking the girl lollies and giving her piggy-back rides around the ARC. She tried to scold them for spoiling the little girl, but it was hard for the soldiers to take Jess seriously when she was laughing at their antics while trying to tell them off.

Almost every time Jess did a sweep of the building through the CCTV, she found Lily in the gym alongside the soldiers. She would either be sitting on their backs, laughing as they did push ups with her astride them, or practicing her ballet steps as they sparred. Prompting people to comment that while at first glance she seemed nothing like Becker—some people going as far as to suggest that she was more like Jess—as she was quite out going, she clearly shared her father's attitude when it came to being active. It was also suggested that she may share his aptitude for leadership, as she was caught bossing the soldier around more than once.

A beeping noise coming from the ADD brought Jess' thoughts back to the present.

Looking at the screens in front of her Jess saw that the first stage of the systems update she was running was complete. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she set stage two into motion.

She had just finished the start-up process when a soldier came running into the hub. Jess spun around in her chair at the commotion he caused.

"Miss Parker, you're needed in the med-bay." He told her, slightly out of breath.

There were only two reasons that Jess would be called to the med-bay, and they were Lily and Maddie. Fearing the worst she had a tech cover the ADD for her and followed the soldier—who she recognised as Private Johnson—out of the hub.

"Lily was in the gym with us, like she always is," he explained as they hurried through the halls. "She was practicing her dance steps in front of the mirror one minute, and the next she was on the floor, holding her ankle and crying. I'm sorry to say none of us saw what happened."

"It's okay. She's in there every day and she's fine, you couldn't have foreseen that she'd hurt herself today." Jess told Johnson, trying to alleviate some of the guilt the man clearly felt.

Though, you'd think with the amount of them in there, someone would have thought to keep an eye of the four-year-old dancing about.

Arriving in the medical section Jess found Lilly being cradled by Lieutenant Williams, Becker's second-in-command, and acting head of security. Maddie and the rest of the core team were there as well, watching on anxiously.

"Mummy!" Lily called, reaching for Jess as soon as she saw her. Jess took Lily out of Lieutenant Williams' arms, who moved off the bed so she could sit with the girl.

"It hurts Mummy." Lily said, tears running down her face. Jess took no notice of what Lily called her, but the rest of the team exchanged concerned looks, they were worried it would cause problems later on if Lily continued to call Jess mummy.

"I know sweetie, but Dr Fray will fix you up. You've just gotta be brave, okay? Can you do that for me?"

Lily nodded and held onto Jess as the doctor inspected her ankle.

"It's nothing serious, just a sprain." Dr Fray told them as she wrapped Lily's ankle in a bandage. "You'll need to ice it every couple of hours and make sure she keeps her weight off of it. If she's complaining of a lot of pain you can give her some paracetamol, but avoid it if you can. The ice should get rid of most of the pain anyway."

"Can I dance?" Lily asked, worry in her eyes.

"Once it's healed, and you're good as new, then you can start dancing again."

"Okay."

"Thank you Dr Fray." Jess said as the doctor left the room, before turning to Lily. "Now, you missy are staying right here until it's time to go home. Understand?"

Lily nodded and Jess pressed a kiss to her head.

"Good; and don't go scaring me like that again."

Lily remained in the med-bay for the rest of Jess' shift, like she promised, and not once did she get bored. Matt, Emily, Abby, and Maddie took turns sitting with her and keeping her entertained while Jess finished running her updates and Connor worked on bringing their father back.

When they arrived home that night Jess had to carry Lily, who still needed to keep her weight off her ankle but had been unable to use the crutches they picked up at the pharmacy on the way home. She lay the little girl down on the couch, using a cushion to prop up her injured foot.

"Can I've some juice Mummy?" Lily asked once she was seated comfortably.

"Um…sure." Jess was taken aback by Lily's use of the M-word. She had heard Lily call her that when she was being treated, but had assumed she just did it because she was scared and in pain. She had thought that as soon as Lily was feeling better she would go back to calling her Jess or Jessie.

Jess sighed.

I'm going to have to talk to her about this. Who knows what Becker will do if he gets back to find his youngest daughter calling me mummy. He'd probably have a heart attack.

Returning to the lounge room, Jess handed Lily the glass of juice and then crouched down beside her.

"Lily, sweetie, you know I'm not really your mummy right?"

The four-year-old frowned at her. "But you make sure we do what we're 'posed to, and look after us, and make us happy."

"I do."

"And you love us, don't you?"

"Of course I do sweetie." It was true, in the time she has known them, Jess had grown to love both Lily and Maddie.

"Isn't that what a mummy does?"

"It…is." Jess had a feeling she had just helped Lily make her point.

"Then you're our mummy." Lily's tone made it clear that it wasn't up for discussion.

Jess smiled at her and kissed her on her forehead. "You just rest your ankle, okay? We'll have you back at dance in no time."

She left Lily in the living room and went to begin making dinner.

What harm does letting her call me mummy really do? If it makes her happy, then why let it bother me?

But what about Becker?

I'll deal with that when it becomes an issue. Who knows maybe it won't be a problem? If the look he was giving me in that photo is anything to go by, he might not mind the girls thinking of me as a mother.