AN: The world of Primeval does not belong to me, the future depicted is not of my imagination but of the writer's of Primeval, and the characters of Matt and Gideon do not belong to me. I will only take credit for Ciara [keer-ah] and and the soon-to-be baby Anderson.

Matt tried to just lie in bed and ignore the screaming heard from the other side of the thin wall, but he just couldn't. His parents hardly ever fought and when they did, it was serious. He couldn't just ignore it. So, like any other curious child, he crawled out of bed and pressed his ear against the poorly built wall; a wall built quickly and simply for the sake of giving the children of the unit their own space away from the adult issues.

"It's too dangerous, Gideon! We can't go through with this! It's hard enough to take care of Matthew, you really want the burden of an infant on our shoulders too?"

"Ciara, please!" Gideon's voice was loud, but calm. Matt couldn't see, but his father was placing his hands on his mother's shoulders now, trying to calm her down as well. "I'm not trying to make things difficult, but you know where I've always stood on this matter. I used to be a doctor, you know very well!"

Matt's face twisted up at the sound of his mother crying. God how he hated that.

"And Matthew is a good boy, he tries his best not to burden us. You know he does his job and he keeps all those children safe."

"I know, I know. But he's still a child, Gideon. Our child. He's only 8 years old. He still needs us. And if he needs us, I can't…I can't even think about another child needing us like that. We don't have the time, we don't have the food or the supplies. And those storms…those storm become worse every day. How do you expect an infant to survive that?"

"Many don't…" Gideon responded, just above a whisper. He'd seen many children die from the toxicity of the very air they breathed. There was no guarantee anybody would survive the next wave, but that didn't mean they didn't deserve a chance to try. "But you know I just couldn't…I couldn't willingly agree to let my own child not be given a fighting chance...I mean...well...you know what I mean..."

"So you'd rather they be born and you fall in love with them and then have them die? For what? The off chance that they could help keep the human race going, or some noble shit like that? Are you even thinking? And what about me? What about the dangers I'll have trying to carry a child in this world? Those predators —"

Matt stepped back from the wall, he couldn't handle hearing about the predators. His nightmares were full of the beasts, tearing his friends and his family to shreds and him unable to protect them. It was his worst fear. Especially being in charge of all the other children in his unit; being the oldest put him in that position when adults couldn't be there for them…or when some parents didn't make it back. Matt took a deep breath and pressed his ear to the wall again.

"Please, please, don't talk like that. I didn't mean it like that. Of course I care about you, of course I don't want harm to fall upon you. I'll keep you safe, I promise. I always have, haven't I?" There was a pause and then his father spoke again, "Just think about this, please…please? Because you know the other way is no easier, we don't have the technology we used to, the procedures are just as likely to —" He cut off and never finished his sentence, but even Matt knew very well the rest of the sentence would be something along the lines of 'kill you.'

There was a brief silence during which Matt could only hear the sound of his parents crying; his father sounding desperate with silent pleas lacing each breath he took and his mother still sobbing through harsh breaths. Matt closed his eyes, trying not to cry himself.

"Okay…I trust you...we'll give this a chance…and we'll give them the fighting chance they deserve…I'm just scared..."

He could hear the sigh of relief his father let out, and he could see the small, twitchy smile clearly in his head.

"I know you are, darling. But if anything should start to go wrong…the moment anything bad happens…I'll take your side…we'll do things your way…I promise, I won't — I won't lose you."

Matt wondered if he should let on that he'd been listening in, that he now knew he was going to be an older brother. Then he thought of how his father always told him not to eavesdrop, that what adults talked about was not his concern until they directly approached him. He felt like he'd be doing wrong in telling his parents, so he quietly tiptoed back to his bed, he crawled under the covers, and he tried his best to fall asleep. He tossed and turned for awhile, not sure how he felt about this news. He just couldn't get his mother's words out of his head. He may not understand everything in this world, but he understood danger. His mother was risking her health and her safety for this baby now, and he was stuck imagining the worst. With his face buried in his pillow, he cried himself to sleep.

But in the morning he'd stick by his initial plan to not let them know he overheard, and he would wait until they brought it up to him. That's what a good boy does; a good boy doesn't burden his parents when they already live everyday giving you everything they can in a world so scarce.