By The Time You Read This (6/8)

[enochiansigils]

Title: By The Time You Read This
Author: enochiansigils and not_from_stars
Artist: weaselett
Fandom: Primeval
Pairing/Characters: Hilary Becker/Abby Maitland/Stephen Hart, James Lester, Jenny Lewis, Danny Quinn,
Rating/Category: PG-13
Summary: Abby had thought that after they came back from the anomaly, that the three of them could make a go of a relationship together. However, when Stephen and Becker fall into a pattern of doing nothing but fighting, it leads her to believe that they don't even care about her any longer. She leaves them a letter to say goodbye and disappears. Now, Stephen and Becker have to find a way to heal their old hurts between them in order to find Abby and convince her that they want to make a life together.
Warnings: This is a sequel to our casestory fic, From Where We're Standing, but can also be a stand alone story.
Words: 33,849
Notes: Written for au_bigbang 2011. Thank you very much to weaselett for the wonderful art that she made for us! We've loved writing this story and have very much enjoyed taking part in the challenge this year.








She hadn't been feeling well for a few days and finally, yesterday she had called in sick to work. This morning when she had gotten up, she felt even sicker and now there was a pain in her abdomen. For most of the day she had sat on the sofa, drinking tea and trying to get comfortable.

By the time night fell, she was curled up on the sofa as pains were moving through her stomach and abdomen. She had spent most of the evening throwing up and now she was shaking from both weakness and fear. She had read enough about these type of pains to know what they meant.

Oh God.

She was in labor.

She shouldn't be, because she was only barely seven months pregnant. This was wrong. This was horribly wrong.

She bit down hard enough on her lip to draw blood as another pain knifed through her.

She was in trouble, but more importantly, her baby was in trouble.

A switch flipped in her mind as she reached for the phone next to the sofa. Her vision swam in and out as she dialed the number that would always be burned into her mind. When she was hurting and in danger, there were two people who immediately made her feel safe. Hopefully, she could get a hold of one of them.

She swallowed back nausea as another pain hit and prayed that he answered the phone. She didn't think that she could remember Stephen's number if Becker didn't answer.

"Please," she whimpered as the phone rang. "Please."

Her prayers were answered a moment later, when Becker reached the phone. "Hello?" he said, holding the phone between his head and his shoulder as he moved around the kitchen, getting dinner ready.

Abby managed to make her voice mostly steady, even as she closed her eyes from the pain. "Hilary."

"Abby?" There was no mistaking the shock in his voice, or the joy. "Where are you? How are you?"

She whimpered. "Hilary. Help. It's too soon."

"It's okay, Abby. It's okay. It's going to be fine. Just tell me where you are. Are you still in the same flat?"

"No." She managed to get out the address of the place she had been staying for the last few months. "Please. I need..." Her voice broke with a sharp cry of pain.

Becker broke away from the phone long enough to stick his head into the living room and yell, "Stephen! Get moving, Abby needs our help!" When he'd done that, he was back on the phone. "Okay, Abby, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to hang up now and then I'm going to call you back on my cell and you're going to stay on the line with me until Stephen and I get there, okay?"

"You and Stephen?" There was a question in her voice even as she was gasping from the effort of not screaming in his ear.

"Yes, love. Me and Stephen. He spends most of his nights with me now. Says he likes my flat better because it's got more memories of the three of us. I tend to agree with him." He was babbling and he knew it, but he couldn't help it.

"Good. You two. Worth..." She clenched her hand around the phone as she cried out again. "Hilary... it hurts. It's not supposed to hurt."

"Oh, God. Listen to me, Abby my girl. I'm going to hang up on you now but I don't want you to be scared. I'm going to call you back in just a second, okay?"

"It's too soon. Not due for a few more months," she gasped.

Shock had him dropping the phone and hanging up. Due? She was pregnant?

He fumbled his cell phone out of his pocket and bent down to pick up the other phone, checking it for Abby's number and tossing it aside to dial his cell phone.

It took Abby a few moments to answer the phone. "Hilary?" The fear and worry that it wasn't him on the other line was clear in her voice.

"It's me, Abby my girl," he said, trying to keep his voice calm and reassuring as he headed into the living room, meeting up with Stephen at the front door. He looked at the other man. "You drive. I need to stay on the line with her."

"Don't go!" There was panic in Abby's voice.

"I'm on my cell now, love. We're going to be there as soon as we can. The both of us. And then we'll get you and the baby to the hospital." There was a slight hitch in his voice on 'baby'.

Stephen just about walked into a wall when he heard Becker say that. He stared for a moment, and then swallowed, their pace quickening toward the door.

"Sorry. Sorry," Abby sobbed into the phone. "Had to."

"We know, Abby," Becker said as they left the flat and headed for one of their cars. "We know."

Abby slid from the sofa, knocking the table over with a loud crash. "Don't feel well, Hilary. Hurts so much. Sick."

"Stay with me, Abby! Damn it, stay with me!" Becker said, nearly yelling. "The baby needs you to stay with me!"

There was silence for a few moments, but then Abby's wavering voice came back on the line. "I'm here."

"That's my girl," he said proudly as they got into the car. He took a moment to give Stephen the address before turning his attention back to Abby. "Okay, love, I want you to keep talking to me. I don't care what you talk about, just keep talking to me."

"Missed you," she finally said, gritting her teeth to keep from screaming again. "Thought you didn't want me."

"We wanted you, Abby. We never stopped wanting you."

"Fighting. Couldn't take it. Couldn't let the baby see it too."

"If we'd known about the baby, we wouldn't have fought around you."

"Didn't want you to fight at all." Abby whimpered. "Love you. Didn't want..." She gasped. "Didn't want you to just stay because of the baby."

"We wouldn't have been staying because of the baby," Becker said. "We'd have just been not fighting because of it. Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?"

"Girl." Abby choked back a yelp. "Girl. They think. Too soon. Only seven months."

"Guess what, Stephen? We have a daughter." There was no mistaking the pride in Becker's voice.

"Hilary..." Abby tried to do what he said, she really did. But that would be the sound of a crash and the phone falling to the floor.

"Abby? Abby! Damn it, Abby!" The pride was gone now, replaced by sheer, stark terror. "Stephen, drive faster, I think she's unconscious."



They reached the flat less than ten minutes later, thanks to copious amounts of breaking any and every speed limit they went through, and were inside the building within moments. It took them barely two minutes to break the door down, having had one of those silent conversations in the blink of an eye where they decided paying to replace a door would be a much easier consequence to swallow than picking the lock and wasting time.

The living room was in shambles. Two tables had been knocked over, as well as a chair. Laying over one of the tables, with the phone inches away from her hand, was Abby. She was obviously some months pregnant, and just as obviously not doing well at the moment. She was unconscious and as the men came to her side, they could see that she was paler than was normal for her.

"Call for help," Becker instructed Stephen, slipping into command mode unconsciously. "We can't risk taking her in the car."

"Your men or a regular hospital?" He was trying not to let his voice shake as he stared at their ill girlfriend.

"My men," Becker said, carefully picking Abby up to lay her down on the sofa. "She won't want a regular hospital. She'll be too scared."

Stephen nodded and put in a call to the military men attached to the ARC. As soon as he told them that they needed help for Abby, he was told they'd be there in fifteen minutes. They knew where she was.

"It seems like your men know where Abby lives," he said shaking his head. "We asked all of the wrong people."

"We'll have to ask her about that... later, when she's doing better." He swallowed. "And when our daughter's safe."

"She looks no more than seven months along," Stephen stated the obvious. "That means she was at the very least three months along when she left. So she knew she was pregnant with our child and she felt she had to walk out on us anyway."

"She hated the fighting. She didn't want us to stay because of the baby, she said."

"Oh god." Stephen's face went gray. "She thought we would only want to stay together because of our baby."

Becker nodded. "We... really didn't do a very good job of loving her."

"But she called us when she was in trouble and scared. That means that she still loves you and trusts you to fix it and keep her safe."

"She sounded happy that you were with me, though," Becker pointed out. "She seemed happy when I mentioned that you spend the night at my place most nights. Or as happy as she could manage, really."

"She and the baby are in trouble." Stephen said. "If it got so bad that Abby is unconscious..."

"I don't even want to think about it," Becker said from where he was kneeling by the sofa, one hand restlessly stroking Abby's hair. "She's going to make it. The baby's going to make it. You're going to get to be a father, Stephen."

"We both are," he said. He went to the other side of the sofa and took her hand. "She's so cold and pale, Becker. She looks so frail."

"She's not supposed to look like that," Becker said. "She's supposed to be strong and fierce and vibrant."

"But she doesn't. She looks like one wrong move could kill her."

"We have to be strong for her."

"I know, I just... We can't have done all that we did just to lose her."

"We won't. She'll make it, the baby will make it, and we'll beg her to take us back."

"She called us," Stephen repeated softly. "She was scared and in pain, and it was us she called." He swallowed. "That means she loves us and trusts us to take care of her." He had to hold on to that belief. "Because she could have called anyone, but she dialed your flat."

"Exactly," Becker said with a firm nod. "And she seemed to want us both here to help her."

"That's good. Because after the last four months, I'm not letting her out of our sight, Hilary. Not again."

"I'm not entirely sure how we're going to make the three of us work as a family, but goddamn it, we're going to do it," Becker said fiercely, glancing at his watch in desperation.

Before Stephen could say anything, four of Becker's men arrived with a stretcher. They pushed past Stephen and looked at Becker, waiting for him to move and fill them in on what had happened.

Becker didn't want to move, but he had to. He stood and moved aside, saying, "Seven months pregnant or so. Presumably early labor, going by what she said when she called me."

"Damn it, Maitland," one of the men muttered as they were getting her onto the stretcher. "You promised."

Stephen raised an eyebrow at that, but knew this wasn't the time to ask questions. He was damn sure going to find out later why Becker's men knew more about their girl than he and Becker did.

"How long has she been like this?" one of the others asked as he took her vital signs.

"Fifteen minutes now, maybe twenty before that allowing for call time and getting here."

"Any idea how long she was in pain before she made the call to you?"

"No," Becker said with a terrified shake of his head.

The medic was looking Abby over and taking a careful inventory of her vital signs. "If she's this bad, she's had to be going through the pain and illness for at least twenty-four hours," he said, reaching for his phone. He dialed a number quickly. "We're bringing Abby Maitland in. Seven months pregnant. Premature labor. Unconscious and her blood pressure is dropping. Let Lester and Lewis know."

Becker reached out to grab Stephen's hand, squeezing tightly. "We've got good staff, Stephen. They'll take good care of her."

Stephen squeezed back, but he couldn't shake the fear he had at seeing Abby so quiet and still. It reminded him too much of when they had finally found her in the Pleistocene and didn't know if she was going to make it. Only, this time there was their baby involved, as well.

"She's a fighter," Becker said softly to Stephen. "She'll make it. She'll make it and the baby will make it and we'll be a family."

Stephen knew that he should be saying something -- anything -- to comfort Becker, as well, but every time he tried to speak, the words stuck in his throat. He looked at him for a long moment, hoping that his eyes at least let the other man know that he loved him and that he was there for him, too.

As much as they'd fought about whether Becker had to be the one to solve everything, the simple fact was that command and control came naturally to him, and so did taking charge now. "She has to make it," he said, trying for a grin. "We can't propose if she doesn't."

His laugh was small, but it was a real laugh and not forced. "That would ruin the whole romantic cavemen aspect of claiming her as ours forever."

"It would, and you'd be stuck with just me for the rest of your life -- because don't you dare think you get out of this if she dies." It wasn't at all funny, but sometimes you had to make really shitty jokes or you'd fall apart even more than you already had.

"I wouldn't want to get out of anything with you," he said solemnly.

"Good, 'cause you're in this for good." And that was when his men moved and they had to follow them.

Stephen nodded and he immediately headed for the driver's side of his car.

"Captain Becker? Do you want to ride with her, sir?"

Stephen looked at Becker. "Go. I'll follow you."

Becker smiled gratefully at Stephen before heading over to the ambulance.

He watched Becker get into the ambulance and saw him settle down to take Abby's hand in his, and he smiled faintly. She had to pull through this. She just had to.

He started up his truck and pulled out behind the ambulance.

In the ambulance, Becker was trying not to cling to Abby's hand. "Come on, love," he whispered. "You have to stay with us. You have to see how we're doing, after all."

The medic paused only slightly as he hooked up the IV, but it was enough of a pause that his commanding officer would notice it.

And Becker did. "What?"

"Don't ask me that unless you want me to answer, sir," the medic said with an even tone of respect.

"Wouldn't have asked it if I didn't," Becker replied.

He cleared his throat. "Why, sir? If you love her so much, why has she been living there alone for the past four months? We all have seen how you two looked at each other, and then all of a sudden, she left the ARC, and you're walking around like a creature with a thorn in his paw."

"Because the two of us are in a relationship with someone and that other person and I couldn't pull our heads out of our asses and realize what was important."

"And now?" The medic asked. "Because, sir, I have to warn you, she and the little one have become like our mascots and there are some of the boys who might have some words about it." He frowned, looking at Abby. "As soon as they get done expressing their displeasure at her breaking a promise to us."

"Stephen and I are committed to each other," Becker said, subtly showing his ring. "And we plan on committing to her, if she'll still have us."

The medic didn't bat an eye. "About god damn time. She's been... she's missed you."

"We've missed her, too."

He nodded, finishing setting up the IV. "Good. Maybe you'll give her a reason to smile again."

"We're going to be a family, if she'll have us."

"She'll have you," he said quietly. "You two were damn fools not to realize what a wonder she was for you, but she'll have you."

"Our problem was not realizing that she loved both of us equally, and that equally meant with every single fiber of her being." He looked down at Abby. "We know it now, Abby my girl. I promise."

The ambulance pulled up to the military hospital and the back doors slammed open.

"Captain Becker, you have to let us take her now," the medic said apologetically as they climbed out of the ambulance and two men took a hold of the stretcher Abby was on.

Becker nodded slightly and squeezed Abby's hand one final time before letting go.

Stephen came up to him and stood as they watched Abby being wheeled back to wherever the doctors were to work on her. He grabbed Becker's shoulder and directed the younger man to follow the soldier who was leading them through another set of doors. Once in the stark waiting room, Stephen gently pushed him to sit down.

It was nice to not be the one taking care of someone for once, Becker noted distractedly as he took a seat. Not that he wanted any of this to be happening, but it was nice that Stephen was the one taking charge. Some other distant part of his mind was pretty sure his disorganization meant he was probably going into shock.

Stephen didn't mind being the one taking charge and taking care of Becker for a change. The other man had done his best to keep them both going for the last few months, and now he needed him to do the same thing for him. For once, Stephen was able to keep his emotions in check, even when he saw Lester and the rest of the team from the ARC enter the room.

Connor and the others went to sit, but Nick came over to him. He looked at Becker with a sad smile and then he looked at Stephen. "How is she?"

"Unconscious," Stephen said, holding Becker's hand and not much caring for anybody's reactions at the moment. The touch made them both feel a little less frightened. "She's also..."

"She's seven months pregnant," Becker said, looking down at the floor. "Our baby."

"Pregnant?" Danny burst out. "Did you know she was pregnant when she quit the ARC, Lester?"

Lester raised an eyebrow at Danny and then turned back to where Nick was standing.

"What happened?" Nick asked quietly. They all knew that Abby had disappeared, but no one had known where she had gone to. "How did you find her?"

"She called me," Becker said, still staring at the floor and quietly falling apart. "She went into labor and called me."

Nick reached out and squeezed Becker's shoulder gently. Sarah started to say something, but Nick shook his head. Neither Stephen or Becker could take any of the team chewing them out right now. They could do that later when everyone was back where they belonged.

Becker toyed with his ring, idly turning it on his finger. "It's our fault. We know. That she left, I mean. We fought over her so damn much and it drove her away."

He'd pretty much officially come unglued just then.

"Was she unconscious when you found her?" Nick asked both of them in a gentle voice. "Or did that happen after you got to her?"

"When we found her," Stephen said. "She lost consciousness while talking to Becker on the phone."

Nick nodded. "I didn't know where she was or else I would have done something," he said quietly. "I knew she was pregnant when she left, but she flat out told me that this was something the three of you had to work out by yourselves."

"We would've worked it out sooner if we'd known," Becker said, finally looking up at Nick. "She shouldn't have been alone while she was pregnant."

"I didn't know that she hadn't told you. I was under the impression that the two of you knew, and that there was something else that caused her to leave."

"She left because those two idiots pushed her away," Lester said quietly after he came back from the admissions desk. "I got her another job and set her up in the flat so that she wouldn't try and do something foolish." He handed Stephen the papers from the desk. "You two need to sign these since she lists you both as her next of kin."

Stephen signed quickly and passed them to Becker, who signed them and handed them back all without losing his shocked, numb expression.

Lester took the forms back and looked at both of them. "I meant what I told you that day in my office," he said. "Don't forget that I will do it if I feel I have to." He then turned and went back to the admissions desk before anyone could respond to him.

Becker leaned against Stephen, falling apart and helpless to stop it. "She has to be all right," he said, still turning his ring aimlessly on his finger, something he hadn't stopped doing since arrival except to sign the papers a moment ago. That ring was all that was keeping him from being a completely weepy mess.

"She'll pull through this, Becker," Nick said softly. "Abby is tough and she's been through a lot. She won't let something like this beat her. Especially now. She won't let something take her away from either one of you."

"She took herself away from us," Becker said, trying to pull himself together and not at all managing. "She left us."

The fact that he understood why hadn't made it hurt any less.

"And you know why she did it," Nick said firmly. "However, that was herchoice. That's something she did. She's not going to let anyone make that choice for her. She's not going to let anyone else make the decision to take her away from you."

Becker nodded slowly. "Guess you're right," he said. "Because leaving us the way she did is one thing. Leaving us any other way is entirely unacceptable to her. Besides, she loves life too much to leave it before she's old."

"Exactly." Nick nodded. He looked from Stephen to Becker. "You haven't given up on finding her before this. Don't give up on her now."

"It's just mildly terrifying... all right, more than mildly... to know that something's wrong with our girlfriend and our child." Because never mind that it was early labor, something had to be wrong for it to be early labor, didn't it?

"You have every right to be terrified," Nick agreed. "But you have to believe that they'll find out what went wrong and that she and the baby will make it out of this safely."

"You're right," Becker said, nodding. "You're right. I just... I hope we find out something soon. I don't think I can take too long a wait on this."

"You need to try to be as calm as possible," Nick advised. "I understand it's difficult, but you need to try."

"I am," Becker replied. "I'm trying. I just can't stop worrying."

Nick looked up as Danny came over. For once in the past few months, Danny didn't look like he was trying to start a fight.

"The two of you just concentrate on the fact that you called you when she was in need." He said in what passed as a soothing tone for Quinn. "Let the rest of us do the heavy worrying for you. You'll need all of your wits about you."

"You being comforting? Okay, you're officially a pod person, aren't you?" Becker asked. But he was actually, legitimately smiling as he said it, even if the smile was somewhat shaky.

Danny shrugged. "She called you when she was in trouble. That says a lot. She could have called any one of us, but she chose to call you."

Stephen gave Becker a comforting smile. "Hopefully they'll be able to take care of whatever's wrong quickly and we'll hear something soon."

That would be when a surgeon came through the double doors and approached the group. "Are you all here for Miss Abby Maitland?"

Lester stepped forward, giving the surgeon his best bored look. "We are. How is Miss Maitland, doctor?"

The surgeon sighed. "We've managed to stabilize her, but we had to deliver the baby. So far the little girl seems to be doing as well as possible for being two months premature."

Becker nearly collapsed against Stephen in relief. "Can we see Abby?" he asked hopefully.

The surgeon gave him a solemn look. "Miss Maitland hasn't regained consciousness since she came in."

"Are there any signs as to when she might?" Stephen asked.

The surgeon shook his head. "No, but we're optimistic that she will regain consciousness. Whomever found her after she collapsed found her in time. If another hour had passed, there is a chance that we would have lost her." He looked at Stephen, since he was the one that asked. "There was an infection and it was poisoning her system. The infection caused the early labor."

"See?" Stephen whispered to Becker. "You saved her. That was your doing."

Another doctor came out, holding a clipboard with some paperwork. "We need some information so we can file the paperwork on the child. What is the baby girl to be called?"

"Leslee Tanith Becker-Hart." That was Lester's voice. "Miss Maitland gave me a copy of her instructions in case something happened where she or the fathers weren't able to answer questions." Lester gave both of the men in question a look that said they didn't dare question what Abby had wished to be the name of their daughter. "I have the certified living will if you need to verify this information."

And no, they didn't dare. They didn't dare in the least.

"Our little girl's got a beautiful name," Stephen said softly to Becker, talking him back to normal. "Doesn't she?"

Becker just nodded.

"And which of you gentlemen is the father?"

This was something Becker could handle. "He is," he replied, pointing to Stephen without even having to think about it.

The second doctor looked at Stephen. "And your name is?"

"Stephen Hart."

The doctor nodded and filled out the paperwork, then handed the clipboard to Stephen. "You need to sign on the line that says Father."

Stephen nodded and took the clipboard, taking a second to make sure his hand wasn't shaking as he signed.

"Would you like to see your daughter, Mr. Hart?"

Stephen was torn; he wanted to see her, but not without Becker.

"Go, love." Becker said quietly. "I want to wait here to get more information about Abby's condition."

Stephen stood. "In that case, I would love to see my daughter."

"Come with me, Mr. Hart. She's in the extra care ward. We need to make sure she's safe from catching any kind of cold or infection she's so tiny and her organs aren't all fully formed yet."

"Aside from being early, she seems fine though, right?" He needed to hear it again.

"She seems fine, just very small and not safe to leave the ward until her organs form fully and we see that she can handle getting the regular injections to defend against illness and infection that usually attacks babies."

"When will I be able to hold her?"

"They'll put a gown and gloves on you, as well as a mask, but after that, they'll let you hold her."

Stephen didn't care what they did to him, as long as he got to hold her.

True the doctor's word, Stephen was put in gown, gloves, mask and hat, and then they lifted his tiny daughter to place in his arms. Said daughter had a head of dark hair and when she opened hers, they were a shockingly bright blue color.

"Hi, sweetheart," he whispered. "Hi, little one. I'm your daddy. You've got another one, but Daddy Hilary's out in the waiting room. I'll make sure they let him in to see you as soon as possible."


Five || Seven

Comments

[aoifes_isle]

Awww.

*snickers*

Already wrapped around baby's little finger!

[darkhorse-99.livejournal.com]

Awwww.... tiny baby! I wuz worried. Becker's gonna have a conversation with his men at some point. Or they're all gonna have one with him.