Disclaimer: Terra Nova does not belong to me.
Mark has been mentally preparing himself for this conversation for three hours. Sadly, he does not feel any more ready now than he had when he had first decided that he was actually going to do this. That fact is not about to stop him from going through with it; he is thinking that this is one of those times in life when he just needs to do without thinking something to death.
Part of his nerves are coming from the fact that Maddy is not with him. It would be helpful if the two of them could present a united front on this, but the problem with that preference is that Maddy does not yet know what he is doing. He has been told that this is very old fashioned of him, but Maddy has said several times that she appreciates the thoughtfulness that people used to put into these sorts of traditions. She deserves every bit of thought and care that he can put into this question, and he does not care about what anyone else thinks about it.
He fully expects Jim Shannon to threaten to shoot him (or at least arrange to have him left to be eaten by a raptor on a patrol) before this conversation is over. He expects a previous conversation between the two of them to get thrown back in his face as well. He had meant it when he had told the man that he intended to wait until Maddy was older to ask her to be his wife, but things have changed. The more he has thought about it (and the more things that have happened around them that prove that mortality is just an inescapable fact of their existence) the less sense it makes to him to put it off until they reach some arbitrary number of birthdays. What, exactly, would be the purpose of waiting for a number?
For Maddy to be more mature? Maddy is one of the most mature people he has ever met. She routinely puts the maturity level of many of the "adults" in the settlement to shame – her own father included. Mark actually likes the man, but yeah, he acts like a risk taking adolescent with an over inflated sense of his own untouchableness on a fairly regular basis.
For Maddy to figure out what she wants to do with her life? Maddy has known that she wants to be involved in scientific research since before she had been old enough to be sent to school. She also wants to raise children without having to look over her shoulder or defend however many she might have to outside entities. Well, Maddy will be welcome in nearly any section of the science corp that she chooses to grace with her presence. He is absolutely prepared to proudly brag about all of his wife's new breakthroughs to anyone that will sit still long enough to listen. As for the other part, well, he likes kids. He always has, and he would be equally happy to have no arbitrary regulations dictating their presence or lack thereof in his life. He may have come through the portal younger than Maddy did, but he has his own memories of what it was like to live in a world that was inherently hostile to children.
He is capable of supporting a couple of dependents on his current reimbursement package, and he has risen to a sufficient rank to be allowed to request non barrack housing arrangements. There is no question of not being able to afford to be married. He wants to take care of her. He would work his fingers to the bone to make sure that she has whatever she needs even if his career suddenly disappeared on them. Their maturity should not be in question.
If Maddy turns him down or asks to wait until after he gets back from his new deployment, then he will accept that without complaint because what Maddy wants and needs will always come first (and if that is not a sign that he is ready to be married to this girl he does not know what would be). He is not going to leave without at least asking.
The new schedules had only come down four hours ago, but the course of action that he needed to follow had been so clear to him that he thinks that he must have been thinking of asking her sooner over later a lot more deeply and for longer than even he had realized. The six month placements out with the various research teams are randomly assigned (provided that no one has requested the positions as people do from time to time). Leadership goes out of their way to make it as painless as possible. Only about half of the military contingent here are married, but they do their level best to sync those types of assignments whenever possible for couples. They do the same for the married members of the science division when their numbers come up for a research trip. They would take Maddy on at least an intern level in a heartbeat if she made a couple placement request – she already has a reputation as a helpful lab assistant from her training rotations. He knows that she likes botany as well as she likes pretty much anything science related. The two of them could go together if they want. If she wants – because it really all comes down to that.
He has three weeks until he deploys. That means that he has three weeks to spend with her (hopefully as a newly engaged couple at least if she wants to put things off until he returns) before he spends six months providing security at a research outlet. That means that they have three weeks to plan and pull off a wedding if she agrees that the reasons to wait seem as trivial and unimportant to her as they do to him.
First, he has to get through this conversation with Jim and Elisabeth (because he is not entirely sure that the older man will not take a swing at him without his wife's calming influence). He has a feeling that the beginning of this talk is going to go very badly, but it will be worth it. Everything that has to do with Maddy is always worth it.