A/N This story is set between just before season 4 starts. In this universe they were only trapped for a few weeks and aren't a couple. They're still dancing around each other, but I wanted the whole Jess/Becker on the side.

Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval.

Summery: When an infant comes through an anomaly it reminds Abby a bit too much of her own childhood. She can't let that happen again.

Warnings: Contains hints of a rough childhood, nothing graphic.

Rating: Strong T in later chapters

More A/N: This is a bit of a departure for me...writing a conventional couple and writing a kid into the mix. I've never really been around babies so I was forced to consult the baby books at the local bookstore and I am so happy no one that I know caught me flipping through 'Babies first year'. That would have been awkward...

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"We got an anomaly!" Connor Temple whooped out loud from his place right in the center of the ops floor., "It's right near here, not two kilometers away. Warehouse district."

"Creature incursion?" His boss, James Lester demanded to know from up on the ramp.

"No...Yes! We have an incursion. Location locked." Connor's fingers flew over his keyboard as he uploaded the address into the GPS devices while the team ran for the cars. Jess took over the computer system while Connor was busy sprinting for the last SUV.

Twenty minutes later they were standing outside a warehouse while a soldier jimmied the lock open. "It's definitely in there." Connor felt his dad's ring under his shirt raise up and pull towards the unseen anomaly. The soldiers rushed in first to clear the building, Abby, Matt and himself went in second. Inside it looked like every other empty warehouse they'd seen. There were a few containers scattered around and a broken down forklift sitting in one corner.

"There it is."

Bright and shimmering in the air about two feet above the floor they saw the time anomaly glinting at them in a innocent way that belied how dangerous it was.

"Where's the creature?" Abby asked casually without lowering her weapon.

"Here sir!" One of the soldiers that was checking the perimeter called out to Becker, "I've found a woman."

Connor and Abby ran over towards the corner where two of the soldiers were pulling a woman out of the crack between a beam and the wall that she was hiding in. She was covered in blood.

"Lay her down, gently there." Becker started to examine her quickly. "What happened to you?"

It was obvious she was from another time. Her heavy woolen skirts and hand woven blouse belonged to a period centuries gone, she had red hair and pale skin, made paler by the blood loss. Becker pulled her shirt up to try and find the source of bleeding. She moaned and tried to stop him with a panicked, weak jerking that stabbed right into Abby's heart.

"Let me," Abby ducked in and got the woman's attention. "We're trying to help you, we're not gonna hurt you. What happened?"

The woman focused in on Abby's face and with a shock Abby realized that she was just a teenager, barely older than sixteen or seventeen. "Raiders, raiders, they killed all of them...I ran...my babe!" The woman tried to sit up and dive back into the crack she had been hiding in, "My babe!" She had a thick accent but she was definitely speaking English.

"Stay there, stay there," Becker held her down. Connor slipped behind the beam and called out, "Look at this now," He stepped back towards them holding a tiny bundle in a bit of blanket. "It's a baby."

The woman gasped and tried to reach for the baby, Connor rushed to her side. "Let us stop the bleeding." She nodded, and with the last of her strength she passed out. Becker started the first aid exam he had been trying to carry out. With no regard for modesty he peeled her bloody shirt up and swore. He was looking at her intestines laying open through several large gashes that looked like they were made by a sword.

"Where's that ambulance!" He shouted while applying pressure to where the worst of the bleeding was, "Get the stretcher, we'll meet them outside, Connor, lock that anomaly."

"Right." Connor was still holding the baby. "Abby," He passed the child over and went to fiddle with the locking device. The soldiers had already set it up and were just making the final connections to power it up when he got there. Abby looked down at the bundle Connor hurriedly pressed into her arms and was drawn into the little scrunched up face that stared back at her with eyes every bit as blue as her own.

Connor's fingers were flying over the keyboard to lock the anomaly when it flashed again and two men fell out. They were nasty types dressed in a combination of leather and heavy wool that was filthy and reeked. They both raised bloody swords in front of them and rushed at Connor with a wild shrieking battle cry.

"Whoa!' He yelped and jumped back. He dodged the two berserk man while two of the soldiers pegged them both. They collapsed, unconscious from the electric pulse. Once they were out Connor went over to examine them. "Look at that, they're Vikings!"

"What do we do with them sir?"

Connor picked up one of their swords and looked at the clotty, goopy blood on it carefully, then glanced over at the nearly dead woman they were pursuing as the other squad carried her out. "Chuck'um back through. I'll lock it. We've got no use for real Vikings in this day and age."

The squad wasn't unprofessional enough to cheer him on but they did hurl the two Vikings back through the anomaly with more force than was strictly necessary. He locked the anomaly and then went back over to Abby. They could hear sirens in the distance.

"The girl is dead." Abby told him abruptly. "She stopped breathing about when those two came through. They were doing CPR on her outside but she was sliced up really badly."

"Oh no. Oh no." He blinked a bit and glanced about for a moment before his attention was drawn to one tiny waving fist. "What about him?"

"I don't know. We'll take him back to the ARC, get him checked out by our doctors. If we take him to the regular hospital they're going to want proof of who he is."

"All right." Connor put his hand on her back and started to guide her back to the car when he caught a whiff of something rank. "We'll stop at the store and get some nappy's or something right?"

"Yeah Conn." Abby agreed with him wholeheartedly. Mysterious dampness was running down her arm. "Find me a towel or something will you?"

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Back at the ARC they delayed going to Lester long enough to give the baby a quick cleanup in the lav and stick a nappy on. Him turned out to be a her. One of the other woman that helped Abby get her cleaned up guessed that she wasn't more than two or three months old.

The little bald girl giggled when they wiped her off and waved wildly at them once her hands were free of the blanket. "She's a lively one, what's going to happen to her?" Grace asked Abby as they walked towards Lester's office.

"I don't know." Abby replied as she joined everyone waiting for her in the office.

"So this is our time traveling, Viking attack surviving infant?" Lester asked in his dry stoic way. "It's a girl. She seems healthy. I was going to take her over to medical after the debrief." Abby told them all as she very carefully and awkwardly shifted the baby around.

Lester came around the desk and looked at the baby's face carefully. "I'll call child services and spin some story about her being abandoned in an alley." He tried to take the baby from Abby.

"No!" She said, shocked. "You can't do that to her!" Abby glanced around the room, there were entirely too many people here for this. It wasn't until Lester brought up child services that Abby made up her mind. "Can I talk to you privately? Please?" The earnest tone of her voice made Lester purse his lips irritably in consent instead of just dismissing her.

"Fine." He jerked his head at the door and obediently everyone else trailed out, Connor last of all giving Abby a very curious look.

Abby hesitated and considered how she could possibly convince Lester, she decided to be blunt, "I got taken into care when I was nine years old."

"I know." Lester told her gently from where he was perched on the edge of his desk, "I read your personal file. You went through nearly forty foster homes and ran away a dozen times before you were seventeen. They locked you in juvie just so you'd stay put long enough to finish school "

Abby looked at him sharply. She didn't know that that was in her file. That meant Connor knew she had been housed in juvenile detention for a year also, he was so damned nosy. She dragged her attention back to the present problem and resolved to jump Connor about peeking into her file again later.

"Yeah well, I'm not discussing my reasons for all that with you, but I can't let you send her into care. I can't. Let me keep her until I can find someone to adopt her. She needs a real family not the fake concern of some caseworker." Abby pleaded with him and tried not to wonder what else was in her ARC file that Connor knew about.

Lester had no intention of telling her he had read the file social services had on her, along with all the police reports and attached medical statements. She wanted to keep her privacy and he was fine with that but it did make things awkward. Given the way social services had failed her, the petite blonde was going to throw a fit to keep this baby away from them.

When Abby was upset then Connor got in a tizzy and together they'd probably do something rash that he would then have to cover up to the public and defend to his superiors. This could lead to all sorts of unwanted incidents. Suddenly, he hit upon a solution but it was far from ideal.

He tried one last time to convince her that she didn't really want to do this.

"Abby, I must say I never expected you to have a maternal side like this. While I respect your reasons for this you have no idea the amount of work that goes into a baby. She's not an iguana with wings that you can just drop a bowl of veg on the floor to feed."

"I know that!" She snapped. "But I can't let you just give her into care."

Lester rolled his eyes at the ceiling. "Fine. You want her, you can have her but you have to keep her. I can make a file for her and explain where she came from but if we drag random people and adoption into this it gets messy. I don't like messy."

Abby thought about what he was saying and looked down at the little face. The little girl was yawning and blinking. She never could turn down a lost creature. "All right. I'll keep her. We have a daycare in the ARC. Half my friends are single mothers. I'll make this work."

"You had better." He told her sourly, "now you have to go explain to your not-boyfriend that you're now a mum."

"Thank you!" Abby grinned at him and turned to go. Lester called after her, "ask him if he wants to be a dad. I've got to put someone on the birth certificate. Take the rest of the day off. You've got some shopping to do. Word of advise?"

Abby turned at the door and looked at him.

"Don't skimp on the nappies."

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Connor was waiting when Abby came out and headed towards the medical section.

"Well? What did you want to talk to him about?"

"I'm keeping her." Abby said bluntly. "I have to. I can't let her life be an endless stream of foster parents and group homes." She pleaded with him to understand, even though she knew she had never shared any details of her childhood, but there was her stupid file he had read...

"Keeping her?" He stopped walking. "We're going to have a baby?" Abby shot him a glare as a passing tech stopped and stared at them both. "At the house." He amended quickly. She groaned, "Yes Connor."

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During the medical exam the doctor pronounced the baby healthy, about ten weeks old and very hungry. The wailing was a big tip off. They dipped a clean washcloth in water and let her suck on it. She didn't really like it but she latched on anyway.

Connor left to go to the store and buy a car seat. Abby was waiting at the ARC, surrounded by the female staff and trying not to be overwhelmed by all the advise she was getting. It didn't help that a lot of it was conflicting.

She was very grateful when Connor returned. He had taken the time to install the infant seat in the back of his car. Abby saw bags full of little nappies and formula overflowing next to the seat. They loaded the baby up and headed home. She had cried herself to sleep when they first strapped her in.

"What all did you buy?" Abby whispered, hoping she didn't wake the baby up.

"The seat, of course and some nappies, pacifier, bottle, two different kinds of formula, I was going to let you pick which one would be better. I don't know very much about babies and some clothes. We'll still need loads of stuff, I didn't know babies needed so much stuff. I went into information overload a bit. I can't wait until we can go back together."

She raised an eyebrow at him, "I'm glad you're excited about this."

"Oh, and I got some books. You know the old joke, they don't come with an instruction manual? There's a baby book called 'Baby Manual'. Got that one." He was inordinately proud of himself.

"Thanks Connor. I'm going to need that."

The baby slept all through the car ride and Connor unfastened the whole car seat and passed it to Abby to take in while he gathered up the bags of extra stuff that had caught his fancy.

Once she was in the house Abby Matlain was at a complete loss at what she was supposed to do next. Thankfully Connor had it together. "Here," He whispered as he pushed two large tins into her hands, "which one should we use?" Abby looked down at the two different brands of formula. She flipped them both over and started to look at the nutrition information. They were both nearly identical.

"I don't think it matters. She's still sleeping, should we wake her up and feed her now or later?" Abby turned to Connor, who knew just as little about babies as she did. "She hasn't eaten in at least four hours. I think we should feed her. How do we cook it?"

Together they pulled the new bottles out of the boxes and washed them. The instructions on the back advised using a bottle sterilizer and boiling everything. They did the best they could and carefully measured out the formula into the hot water and shook the little bottle up.

"Baby, baby," Connor said as he unfastened the straps that held the infant into the seat.

She woke up abruptly and scrunched up her face and bawled. "Oh baby," Connor fished her out of the carrier and passed her to Abby, who had the bottle. Gingerly Abby poked it at her face. She spit the nipple out. Abby tried again. Stubbornly the baby spit the nipple back out and bawled louder.

"What do we do?" Connor asked. Abby tried a trick she had learned at the zoo and gently pressed the nipple above the shrieking child's lip, so that the formula ran down into her mouth.

The baby started licking her lips and they could see her trying to suck something. Having the food hit her mouth seemed to be the trigger. When Abby tried the bottle the third time it didn't get spit out.

"I'll get this stuff unpacked." Connor said. Abby nodded agreement as she sat down on the couch with the baby. "I have no idea what I'm doing." Abby confessed.

"That's fine. That's why I got the books." Connor glanced over and saw Abby was honestly getting upset. "Hey, look at me." He slid down beside her on the couch and hugged her with one arm. "You've never really talked about you childhood, and that's fine, I've never really talked about mine but my point is, you'll be a better mum than some paid guardian that doesn't give a damn. You care about her, and that's all a kid really needs is a mum that cares." Abby didn't miss the needful tone in his voice.

"Yeah. I guess you're right. I just couldn't let Lester send her off."

"What's her name? Her real mum died before she told anyone. I guess that means you get to name her."

Abby looked down at the little one. "I've never thought about naming a child."

"Are you taking suggestions?" Connor asked shyly.

"What's your idea?"

"Madeline. We could call her Maddy."

"Is that from Star Trek?" Abby prepared to tease him and was surprised when he shook his head in the negative. "No. It was my sisters name." Connor whispered.

"Sister? What happened?" Connor had never ever mentioned a sister to her. But to be fair she had never mentioned her brother to him until Jack blew into town.

"Car crash. She was six. I was nine. She slipped out of her seat belt and went out the window. The car rolled on her." The dark haired man looked as his hands as he explained quietly. "My dad never recovered either. He drank himself to death a year later and mum was left with just me."

"Madeline is a beautiful name." Abby told him firmly. "Maddy."

Together they gave little Madeline a sponge bath, changed her nappy again and then Connor held her, sitting on Abby's bed while she cleaned out her top dresser drawer to use as a crib for tonight.

Rex followed them in and was perched on the headboard checking out Madeline. Intently, they watched each other. Red trilled curiously and inched closer. "How are we going to convince him that she's not a toy?"

"I have no idea. I'll made sure he's not in here when we're sleeping. Beyond that I think he'll get used to her then ignore her. He only bothers us when he wants to play or something to eat."

Connor tried not to pay attention to the lacy underwear that was being shifted into other drawers. Abby noticed him trying not to pay attention. "How is she?"

"Awake." Connor laid the baby down on Abby's bed. The little girl immediately started to push herself up a little bit and floundered around. "She's an active little mite."

Abby came over and sat down by Connor after she'd finished lining the drawer with towels. "What do you think I ought to do now?" The baby gurgled to herself and grinned like a maniac, completely unaware of how intently she was being observed.

"Do you mean, set up a college fund for her or how are we going to get through the next few weeks?" Connor replied with his trademark dimple grin.

"Yeah." Ruefully, Abby answered him. Connor laughed and patted her on the back. "We survived the dinosaurs. I think we can survive this. Now, I think you ought to watch the baby and I'll make us some supper. How does that sound?"

"Wonderful." She said gratefully.

Connor had brought the baby book upstairs with them and Abby took the chance to flip it open to the two month old section. At one point Maddy rolled over and was amazed at the new view of the world. Abby laughed at the baby's expression, she was so pleased with herself.

Downstairs Connor was trying to focus on cooking chicken in a pan for the chicken alfredo he had planned. His emotions were in a tizzy. He always wanted kids and he adored Abby. Once he had even told her that he loved her but then he had chickened out and pretended not to have said it.

He really regretted that but she had let him get away with it, so what did that say about how she felt about him? He derailed that train of thought and brought his attention back to dinner, for about thirty seconds before he continued to ponder the various blunders he had made. Still, he said he loved her! That had to count for something? Didn't it? Even if he had wussed out at a crucial moment.

He hadn't had the guts to bring it up again and push the issue. She seemed content to let things continue on the way they were now and he didn't want to upset the apple cart. It was nice enough that she evicted Jack when they returned from the Cretaceous and let him move back. He didn't want to push his luck.

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They didn't have a high chair, and she couldn't sit up on her own anyway so Abby laid a blanket on the ground and piled pillows around it so Madeline couldn't escape. It was so odd, they both kept glancing over at the baby that was laying on the floor, after a few minutes she fell asleep there. A sleeping baby was just as nerve wracking as an awake baby.

Connor cleaned up the kitchen while Abby made a list of everything they still needed to get, it seemed endless, and expensive. Fortunately the ARC paid well. The baby slept nearly two hours with them tiptoeing around the flat keeping the TV nearly silent before waking up crying for food and a clean nappy.

Abby picked her up, cooing at her while Connor made a bottle up. She glanced over at him carefully measuring out the formula while she was changing Maddy. He looked so serious mixing up a bottle, like it was his own daughter he was making it for. Rex was on the counter chirping encouragement to him. She was too far away to hear the conversation they were having but it must have been funny because suddenly Connor smiled and his whole face lit up.

"Will you feed her while I take a shower?" Abby asked him, "I should have done it while she was sleeping, sorry."

"Sure, we get along. Come here baby..." Connor took the child and stopped her fussing with the bottle. "Take your time."

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When Abby came back dressed in her night gown she found Connor reading a comic book to Madeline. She stood out of sight and listened to him narrate the adventures of wolverine and his merry band for a few minutes before moving into sight.

"Your turn. Are you sure that's an appropriate bedtime story?"

"The X-men are nothing but good clean wholesome fun." He shut the book so Abby didn't see the graphic animation of an epic battle between good and evil. There may have been a little dismemberment, but only of the bad guys. "She's sleepy again. I think she'll doze off in a bit. This parenting stuff isn't so hard."

"We've had a successful eight hours. I think it's too soon to declare it's not that bad yet." Abby told him and took in the baby's blinking eyes. "I'll take her upstairs and we'll see if she sleeps through the night. The book said some babies will by this point."

"Wake me up if you need something." Connor grinned at her again. She never would have guessed having a baby in the house would make him so happy. "Thanks Connor, oh, Lester wanted me to ask if you wanted to be on her birth certificate that he's faking up. He was joking, I think, but if something happened to me then you'd have a legal right to her. You don't have to decide tonight. It's a really big decision-"

"I'd love to be her father." Connor announced before Abby could even finish telling him he didn't have to. "She adorable, and she's only got us. Her real mum died before lunch today. I can't imagine just turning her out."

"Are you sure? You don't have to just because I did."

"Abby, you're not the only one that doesn't want to see her taken into Social Services. If stepping up and taking a bit of responsibility officially can keep that from happening, I'll do it." Connor got up off the couch and pulled Abby into a loose hug, "and realistically, I live here. I'm going to help you raise her. It might as well be official."

Someone just looking in the window might suppose they were seeing a tender moment between a young family. In a way, that's exactly what it was.

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Connor woke up disoriented, to a weird noise. After a moment he placed it as a baby crying downstairs. He staggered up in his boxers and headed down the stairs to see if Abby needed help. On the way out he glanced at his watch. It was nearly three in the morning.

"Abby? How's it going?" He called out as he staggered into the living room. She had the light off and was walking back and forth. "I don't know what she wants. She had a bottle and instead of going back to sleep she's just crying." Connor could hear the stress in Abby's voice.

"Let me walk her for a bit." He took the crying baby off Abby and jostled her gently. Abby collapsed on the couch and watched Connor with tired eyes. "Hey now, hey now, what's the matter? Mummy is tired." Madeline was unmoved, and determined in her wailing. Connor moved her to his shoulder and patted her back. A second later he regretted that as the baby made a burping sound and he felt something wet and hot hit his bare shoulder and run down his back.

"Uh Abby? Some assistance here?" On the upside the crying stopped as soon as the spitting up happened.

Abby dragged herself up and got a warm washcloth. It was almost surreal, the two of them in the dark and all she could see of Connor was his silhouette. He had a very nice silhouette she noted idly as she wiped off Connor's shoulder and where the baby spit-up had dribbled down his back. She was so close she couldn't help but to notice the well defined muscles on his back but in her sleepy state she didn't really pay attention.

It didn't register that she was running the warm washcloth a bare inch above where his boxers started until she heard his sharp intake of breath and it suddenly snapped into focus that the gawky, socially inept college student had been washed away by the last few years and replaced by a man that was brilliant, sweet, handsome, and generous enough to volunteer to raise a stray child that Abby had brought home.

Abby jumped away like she had been burned. Connor stayed where he was, still rocking the baby gently and he kept his eyes closed, like he couldn't bear to see the rejection in her face. If he had looked, that wasn't what he would have seen.

"Sorry," She stuttered out. "Yeah, It's alright." He told her softly. "How long have you been up?"

"She got me up about eleven, for a dry nappy and a bottle, then just a few minutes ago." Abby tried to move past the weird energy that moved in. It wasn't happening. "I'll stay up with her, you try to get some sleep before work." Connor still didn't look at Abby.

"Thanks. Here's the bottle. She only had half of it." Gratefully Abby handed Connor a towel for his shoulder before retreating, and that was the only word for it, back to her bedroom.

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A/N: If you liked it...or not...please leave me a review. Even a few words really inspires me to write more.