Sci-Fi Big Bang - Children Through Time - Elizabeth's Book
Title: Children Through Time - The Book of Elizabeth
Chapter: 1
Rating: R
Characters: Team Torchwood, Elizabeth Murphy, David Ortiz, OC's
Spoilers: Children of Earth
Disclaimers: I do not own Torchwood or the characters therein, they belong to the BBC and RTD. Any original characters and places are my property.
Author's Notes: The series of events in Children Through Time take place after Children in Time. It is not necessary to read Children in Time but it can be found here.
Special Thanks: To my awesome beta faithharkness, and to my artist laura_guerin, and great cheerleading from knitchick1979, chicago_girl_07 and all the others. It was rough going this time, but we did it.
Chapter 1
“Please, James, don’t do this. Mommy needs you to be good today,” Elizabeth pleaded with the three year old.
She held out his winter coat, waving it at the little dark-haired boy. He pouted, his arms crossed in front of him, swaying back and forth. James’ hazel eyes were flashing. Elizabeth let out a sigh, her other hand over her swollen and pregnant belly.
“I don’t wanna! I wanna play with Tami!” The little boy stomped down his right foot and stood still. “She promised we’d play castles and dragons. Where is she?”
“Tami is not feeling well and she didn’t want to get you sick sweetheart. Now come on, put your coat on,” Elizabeth said as she dropped his coat over his head.
She heard a grunt from under the coat. Then, without moving it from his head, “Where are we going?”
“Mommy has to see the doctor, so Daddy is going to watch you.” Elizabeth finished putting her coat on and wrapped the scarf around her neck. While she was pregnant with James, she couldn’t work or anything, and none of her other friends talked to her since she had come back. Well, she did wonder if she would have talked to them if they had not been around for 16 years. So she knitted. She had to do something with her time and had learned how to knit. That was just over four years ago.
After a long pause, James said from under the coat, “Daddy doesn’t like me.”
“Oh, sweetheart, yes he does.”
James ripped the coat off his head and held it at his side. “No he doesn’t!”
“Yes he does. Daddy,” she paused, unsure of what to say. “Daddy, just doesn’t know how to say he loves you.”
“But you say it, and Melissa says it, and Tami loves me all the time!” James pouted, burying his chin in his chest, swinging his arms side-to-side. “I wanna go with you.”
“James, sweetheart, please. Just put your coat on so we can go to Daddy’s office.” Elizabeth put her forehead in her palm, closing her eyes. This boy liked to push every last one of her nerves. “Melissa will be there today.”
“Oh yeah! Last time she let me make my own files. She even gave me my own highlighters,” James said as he slipped his coat on.
Elizabeth leaned down, struggling to zip up his coat. “Is that why there’s a chair in the back of the office with big stripes of pink and green on it?”
“It’s my own desk now. I have my own desk at Daddy’s work,” James said proudly. “And Melissa’s my assistant too, and she calls me her Little Boss Man.” James was beaming.
She couldn’t help smiling, too. James’ attitude was so infectious. If she ever had a bad day, all she had to do was get a hug from the cutest boy in the whole galaxy. She finished zipping up his coat and put the knitted red hat on his head. He never went anywhere without his favorite knitted cap; he was so proud to tell everyone that his mom had made just for him.
Pushing the boy out the door, Elizabeth hit the security keypad and hurried downstairs, holding tight to James’ little hand. Nodding her head at Rob, the security officer for her building, they hurried into the gray light of day. It had been threatening to rain all morning and the clouds looked as swollen and heavy as she felt, but not a drop had fallen.
Elizabeth sighed, looking at the car that waited for them. David always did that. She knew how to drive, had even gotten a new license once she came back, but he always insisted, especially when James was with her, that she not have to worry. It drove her nuts.
Buckling James into his car seat, Elizabeth sat back as the car took off for David’s office in the center of the Loop area. Turning to James, she smiled as he started babbling, giving her an in-depth narrative on what kind of monsters and dragons lived in every building they passed. The tall ones had dragons nests on the roof, that’s why no on ever saw the dragons anymore. It didn’t surprise Elizabeth that he had such a fascination with dragons; she had when she was his age.
Coming upon the building where David still housed his business, Elizabeth unbuckled James and had t grab him by the collar of his jacket to keep him from running for the main doors. He struggled against her, flailing his arms, but she had the grip of a mother and he was going nowhere.
“I’ll be back down in about ten minutes,” she said to the driver, then took James firmly by the hand and headed for the elevator.
She barely listened to his chatter as they headed across the big, glass enclosed lobby. If anyone had wanted to attack this building, they would be seen, no matter what side they attacked from. James continued jabbering about how when he was old enough, he would be running this building and buildings all over the universe. She almost felt sorry for the others in the elevator as he kept talking, but it was good to have someone else listen to him for a bit.
Getting off on the 28th floor, she let go of James’ hand and he sprinted for the far door. She nearly chuckled as she watched him struggle with the heavy door. Finally waddling up to it, Elizabeth opened the door for him and watched as he marched into the office like he owned it.
“Good morning,” Melissa said as she set down a stack of digital pads.
“Good morning,” Elizabeth said.
James thumped over to the desk and held out his hand to Melissa. Melissa held out her hand and he took it, shaking hands with her, pumping both their arms up and down rather enthusiastically.
“James, don’t break Melissa. Your Daddy wouldn’t know what to do then,” Elizabeth quipped.
“Good morning, my Little Boss Man,” Melissa said, letting go of James’ hand. He stared at her a moment and then grinned so wide one would have though he had just dove into a mountain of candy. James quickly tackled Melissa around the mid-section and hugged her hard.
“Good morning,” David said from the doorway to his office, startling the three of them.
“David,” Elizabeth said, her voice catching. Her hand went to her pregnant belly as she swore she felt the baby kick. She wouldn’t be surprised if it recognized its own daddy, despite him keeping his distance.
“Hi, Daddy,” James said, looking at his sneakers as he shuffled his feet.
“James, why don’t you go in the office? I think Melissa got you some paper and markers and they’re on your desk,” David said as he put a hand on James’ head, prompting the boy into the office.
James started heading into the office and then suddenly ducked under David’s hand and hugged Elizabeth around the legs. “I love you Mommy,” James said, burying his face into her legs. “I don’t want you to go, I had a bad dream. Don’t go.”
“Mommy has to go see the doctor,” Melissa said, coming around her desk. She picked James up, holding him in her arms. “Give her a kiss until she comes back.”
James leaned over, hugging Elizabeth around the neck and gave her a big wet kiss on her lips. It was her most favorite kiss in the world. “I love you, sweetheart. Be good for Daddy and Melissa until I get back.”
Melissa carried him into David’s office, James just staring over her shoulder at Elizabeth. Once they were inside, David closed the door behind them and walked over to Elizabeth. He took her by the hand.
“What’s this about a bad dream?” David looked at her, seemingly concerned for the first time in a long while.
“James had a nightmare last night, that’s all,” Elizabeth said, looking away. She pulled her hand out of his.
“Be careful. I care about you,” David said, taking a step back.
“Right. I have a doctor’s appointment to keep.” She knew he cared, but she wasn’t going to press it. In fact, she had been keeping her distance since the last time they… Since they had conceived… The last time they had been alone, she had woken up and snuggled next to him in his sleep. It was then that he spoke aloud to Allison, saying how much he loved her, how much he loved Allie.
She couldn’t blame him; Allie had been a woman he had loved so much. She had been David’s wife. Elizabeth knew she could never compare to Allie, and she didn’t even try. She was willing to bet David wouldn’t try to save her if it meant giving up his life, but she was fine with that.
Walking out the door, Elizabeth could feel David watching her, but she didn’t look back. Hurrying downstairs, she slipped into the waiting car, her thoughts back up on the 28th floor. The car headed south in the city, but she barely paid attention to the neighborhoods they passed by.
Pulling up to the doctor’s office, which was located in a sturdy-looking building, Elizabeth looked down and saw James’ red cap on the back seat. She let out a sigh and picked it up, stuffing it into her coat. Elizabeth headed inside after telling the driver to pick her up in an hour.
Meandering through the gray halls up to the third floor, Elizabeth entered the doctor’s office and the nurse immediately escorted her into an examining room. When she had first gotten pregnant with James, she had been terrified. Women in her family usually had bad pregnancies. Apparently her sister had nearly died delivering her last niece, and Elizabeth wasn’t there for her, she had still been missing. She tried not to think about that; instead Elizabeth thought about how Dr. Wilkerson had been a blessing, and despite the females of her family, she had not had a bad pregnancy yet.
The nurse held out a dressing gown to Elizabeth. “If you would change, we’ll get the bioscan done first,” the nurse said, ducking out of the office.
Elizabeth nodded even though the nurse couldn’t see her anymore and started slipping off her shoes and socks. Glancing at the slate-colored walls, Elizabeth wondered why Dr. Wilkerson chose this building - it often seemed like it would be a better fit for a military organization or something. She slipped off her top and put the dressing gown on, snapping the enclosures.
Sitting down in the brown chair next to the examining table, Elizabeth rubbed her belly, wishing she had someone to talk to. Her sister had barely had three conversations with her in the couple of years she had been back. The first one had been to see her and see what had happened. The fact that she hadn’t aged in 16 years did not help matters. The second call was to tell her everything about her father’s and brother’s estates. The last one had been nearly a year ago, telling her that their mother wasn’t doing well and was being admitted to a home, but to not bother seeing her. Ever. Elizabeth sighed, thinking how her sister had never met her own nephew.
“Hello there, Elizabeth,” Dr. Wilkerson said as he walked through the door, holding a digital pad in his right hand.
“Hi there, Doctor,” Elizabeth replied, rubbing her stomach as the baby decided to start doing somersaults all over her kidney.
“How are things going?” he asked, not even looking up at her.
“Okay. Everything seems perfectly fine. Nothing has gone wrong with the pregnancy at all.” Elizabeth looked at him, knowing her family history, which worried her more than anything. “Are you sure everything is fine?”
“We’ll know as soon as we do the body scan,” he said, still looking at the digital pad.
The nurse entered and held out a hand towards Elizabeth. “Come along,” the nurse said as she led Elizabeth to the scanning chamber through a door in the opposite wall.
Elizabeth followed the woman and walked straight into the chamber, shivering slightly as the door sealed behind her. She equated it as a standing MRI chamber, but it was much quicker and able to do a complete body scan/x-ray in just a minute or two. Science had advanced pretty far, it seemed.
She trembled as she looked around the interior of the scanner. It had dark grey walls that made her think of dirt. All she saw was grey, except for a green light that helped illuminate the inside of the chamber. Her mind yelled at her how wrong this was every time Elizabeth stepped inside one of these things, but she didn’t know why.
Thinking of James, Elizabeth tried to breathe while the machine came to life, thrumming around her. She closed her eyes and started singing a lullaby. She didn’t even pay attention to what she was singing to herself.
The door to the chamber opened and the nurse stood there. “All done,” she said as Elizabeth stepped out. “What was that song you were singing?”
“What song?” Elizabeth asked her as she headed back for the examining room.
“The song you started singing in there. It sounded pretty, like a lullaby, but I couldn’t quite place the language.” The nurse looked at her a moment. “It sounded… It almost sounded Welsh.”
“Couldn’t be,” Elizabeth stated. “I don’t know Welsh.”
Dr. Wilkerson peered at the two women as they finished the conversation. Elizabeth noticed him making a notation on the pad he was still looking at. He finally looked up at Elizabeth, a fake smile on his face as the nurse helped her up to the examining table.
“All right then, time to do things the old-fashioned way,” Dr. Wilkerson said as Elizabeth put her feet up in the stirrups and laid back.
Half an hour later, after every test had been run, Elizabeth finished getting dressed and was headed out of the office. The car wouldn’t be around for another fifteen minutes, but she figured she could just nip down to the corner and grab a coffee from the shop. Stuffing her hand in her pockets, Elizabeth pulled out James’ red hat and held it to her. She loved her little boy and would do anything for him. Apparently that meant giving up any chance of a normal job, since all David wanted to do was provide for them so they would “be safe,” or so he kept saying.
Entering the elevator at the end of the hall from Dr. Wilkerson’s office, Elizabeth suddenly felt a strange sensation. Her mind felt fuzzy and the lights seemed to hurt. Before she could press any of the buttons the doors slammed shut, but the elevator did not move. Elizabeth fell against the doors, hitting them with her fists.
“Hey! Something’s wrong! Get me out of here,” Elizabeth yelled. She hit the doors one more time and was about to hit the emergency button when her body grew warm and then went numb and all she saw was black.
Chapter: 1
Rating: R
Characters: Team Torchwood, Elizabeth Murphy, David Ortiz, OC's
Spoilers: Children of Earth
Disclaimers: I do not own Torchwood or the characters therein, they belong to the BBC and RTD. Any original characters and places are my property.
Author's Notes: The series of events in Children Through Time take place after Children in Time. It is not necessary to read Children in Time but it can be found here.
Special Thanks: To my awesome beta faithharkness, and to my artist laura_guerin, and great cheerleading from knitchick1979, chicago_girl_07 and all the others. It was rough going this time, but we did it.
Chapter 1
“Please, James, don’t do this. Mommy needs you to be good today,” Elizabeth pleaded with the three year old.
She held out his winter coat, waving it at the little dark-haired boy. He pouted, his arms crossed in front of him, swaying back and forth. James’ hazel eyes were flashing. Elizabeth let out a sigh, her other hand over her swollen and pregnant belly.
“I don’t wanna! I wanna play with Tami!” The little boy stomped down his right foot and stood still. “She promised we’d play castles and dragons. Where is she?”
“Tami is not feeling well and she didn’t want to get you sick sweetheart. Now come on, put your coat on,” Elizabeth said as she dropped his coat over his head.
She heard a grunt from under the coat. Then, without moving it from his head, “Where are we going?”
“Mommy has to see the doctor, so Daddy is going to watch you.” Elizabeth finished putting her coat on and wrapped the scarf around her neck. While she was pregnant with James, she couldn’t work or anything, and none of her other friends talked to her since she had come back. Well, she did wonder if she would have talked to them if they had not been around for 16 years. So she knitted. She had to do something with her time and had learned how to knit. That was just over four years ago.
After a long pause, James said from under the coat, “Daddy doesn’t like me.”
“Oh, sweetheart, yes he does.”
James ripped the coat off his head and held it at his side. “No he doesn’t!”
“Yes he does. Daddy,” she paused, unsure of what to say. “Daddy, just doesn’t know how to say he loves you.”
“But you say it, and Melissa says it, and Tami loves me all the time!” James pouted, burying his chin in his chest, swinging his arms side-to-side. “I wanna go with you.”
“James, sweetheart, please. Just put your coat on so we can go to Daddy’s office.” Elizabeth put her forehead in her palm, closing her eyes. This boy liked to push every last one of her nerves. “Melissa will be there today.”
“Oh yeah! Last time she let me make my own files. She even gave me my own highlighters,” James said as he slipped his coat on.
Elizabeth leaned down, struggling to zip up his coat. “Is that why there’s a chair in the back of the office with big stripes of pink and green on it?”
“It’s my own desk now. I have my own desk at Daddy’s work,” James said proudly. “And Melissa’s my assistant too, and she calls me her Little Boss Man.” James was beaming.
She couldn’t help smiling, too. James’ attitude was so infectious. If she ever had a bad day, all she had to do was get a hug from the cutest boy in the whole galaxy. She finished zipping up his coat and put the knitted red hat on his head. He never went anywhere without his favorite knitted cap; he was so proud to tell everyone that his mom had made just for him.
Pushing the boy out the door, Elizabeth hit the security keypad and hurried downstairs, holding tight to James’ little hand. Nodding her head at Rob, the security officer for her building, they hurried into the gray light of day. It had been threatening to rain all morning and the clouds looked as swollen and heavy as she felt, but not a drop had fallen.
Elizabeth sighed, looking at the car that waited for them. David always did that. She knew how to drive, had even gotten a new license once she came back, but he always insisted, especially when James was with her, that she not have to worry. It drove her nuts.
Buckling James into his car seat, Elizabeth sat back as the car took off for David’s office in the center of the Loop area. Turning to James, she smiled as he started babbling, giving her an in-depth narrative on what kind of monsters and dragons lived in every building they passed. The tall ones had dragons nests on the roof, that’s why no on ever saw the dragons anymore. It didn’t surprise Elizabeth that he had such a fascination with dragons; she had when she was his age.
Coming upon the building where David still housed his business, Elizabeth unbuckled James and had t grab him by the collar of his jacket to keep him from running for the main doors. He struggled against her, flailing his arms, but she had the grip of a mother and he was going nowhere.
“I’ll be back down in about ten minutes,” she said to the driver, then took James firmly by the hand and headed for the elevator.
She barely listened to his chatter as they headed across the big, glass enclosed lobby. If anyone had wanted to attack this building, they would be seen, no matter what side they attacked from. James continued jabbering about how when he was old enough, he would be running this building and buildings all over the universe. She almost felt sorry for the others in the elevator as he kept talking, but it was good to have someone else listen to him for a bit.
Getting off on the 28th floor, she let go of James’ hand and he sprinted for the far door. She nearly chuckled as she watched him struggle with the heavy door. Finally waddling up to it, Elizabeth opened the door for him and watched as he marched into the office like he owned it.
“Good morning,” Melissa said as she set down a stack of digital pads.
“Good morning,” Elizabeth said.
James thumped over to the desk and held out his hand to Melissa. Melissa held out her hand and he took it, shaking hands with her, pumping both their arms up and down rather enthusiastically.
“James, don’t break Melissa. Your Daddy wouldn’t know what to do then,” Elizabeth quipped.
“Good morning, my Little Boss Man,” Melissa said, letting go of James’ hand. He stared at her a moment and then grinned so wide one would have though he had just dove into a mountain of candy. James quickly tackled Melissa around the mid-section and hugged her hard.
“Good morning,” David said from the doorway to his office, startling the three of them.
“David,” Elizabeth said, her voice catching. Her hand went to her pregnant belly as she swore she felt the baby kick. She wouldn’t be surprised if it recognized its own daddy, despite him keeping his distance.
“Hi, Daddy,” James said, looking at his sneakers as he shuffled his feet.
“James, why don’t you go in the office? I think Melissa got you some paper and markers and they’re on your desk,” David said as he put a hand on James’ head, prompting the boy into the office.
James started heading into the office and then suddenly ducked under David’s hand and hugged Elizabeth around the legs. “I love you Mommy,” James said, burying his face into her legs. “I don’t want you to go, I had a bad dream. Don’t go.”
“Mommy has to go see the doctor,” Melissa said, coming around her desk. She picked James up, holding him in her arms. “Give her a kiss until she comes back.”
James leaned over, hugging Elizabeth around the neck and gave her a big wet kiss on her lips. It was her most favorite kiss in the world. “I love you, sweetheart. Be good for Daddy and Melissa until I get back.”
Melissa carried him into David’s office, James just staring over her shoulder at Elizabeth. Once they were inside, David closed the door behind them and walked over to Elizabeth. He took her by the hand.
“What’s this about a bad dream?” David looked at her, seemingly concerned for the first time in a long while.
“James had a nightmare last night, that’s all,” Elizabeth said, looking away. She pulled her hand out of his.
“Be careful. I care about you,” David said, taking a step back.
“Right. I have a doctor’s appointment to keep.” She knew he cared, but she wasn’t going to press it. In fact, she had been keeping her distance since the last time they… Since they had conceived… The last time they had been alone, she had woken up and snuggled next to him in his sleep. It was then that he spoke aloud to Allison, saying how much he loved her, how much he loved Allie.
She couldn’t blame him; Allie had been a woman he had loved so much. She had been David’s wife. Elizabeth knew she could never compare to Allie, and she didn’t even try. She was willing to bet David wouldn’t try to save her if it meant giving up his life, but she was fine with that.
Walking out the door, Elizabeth could feel David watching her, but she didn’t look back. Hurrying downstairs, she slipped into the waiting car, her thoughts back up on the 28th floor. The car headed south in the city, but she barely paid attention to the neighborhoods they passed by.
Pulling up to the doctor’s office, which was located in a sturdy-looking building, Elizabeth looked down and saw James’ red cap on the back seat. She let out a sigh and picked it up, stuffing it into her coat. Elizabeth headed inside after telling the driver to pick her up in an hour.
Meandering through the gray halls up to the third floor, Elizabeth entered the doctor’s office and the nurse immediately escorted her into an examining room. When she had first gotten pregnant with James, she had been terrified. Women in her family usually had bad pregnancies. Apparently her sister had nearly died delivering her last niece, and Elizabeth wasn’t there for her, she had still been missing. She tried not to think about that; instead Elizabeth thought about how Dr. Wilkerson had been a blessing, and despite the females of her family, she had not had a bad pregnancy yet.
The nurse held out a dressing gown to Elizabeth. “If you would change, we’ll get the bioscan done first,” the nurse said, ducking out of the office.
Elizabeth nodded even though the nurse couldn’t see her anymore and started slipping off her shoes and socks. Glancing at the slate-colored walls, Elizabeth wondered why Dr. Wilkerson chose this building - it often seemed like it would be a better fit for a military organization or something. She slipped off her top and put the dressing gown on, snapping the enclosures.
Sitting down in the brown chair next to the examining table, Elizabeth rubbed her belly, wishing she had someone to talk to. Her sister had barely had three conversations with her in the couple of years she had been back. The first one had been to see her and see what had happened. The fact that she hadn’t aged in 16 years did not help matters. The second call was to tell her everything about her father’s and brother’s estates. The last one had been nearly a year ago, telling her that their mother wasn’t doing well and was being admitted to a home, but to not bother seeing her. Ever. Elizabeth sighed, thinking how her sister had never met her own nephew.
“Hello there, Elizabeth,” Dr. Wilkerson said as he walked through the door, holding a digital pad in his right hand.
“Hi there, Doctor,” Elizabeth replied, rubbing her stomach as the baby decided to start doing somersaults all over her kidney.
“How are things going?” he asked, not even looking up at her.
“Okay. Everything seems perfectly fine. Nothing has gone wrong with the pregnancy at all.” Elizabeth looked at him, knowing her family history, which worried her more than anything. “Are you sure everything is fine?”
“We’ll know as soon as we do the body scan,” he said, still looking at the digital pad.
The nurse entered and held out a hand towards Elizabeth. “Come along,” the nurse said as she led Elizabeth to the scanning chamber through a door in the opposite wall.
Elizabeth followed the woman and walked straight into the chamber, shivering slightly as the door sealed behind her. She equated it as a standing MRI chamber, but it was much quicker and able to do a complete body scan/x-ray in just a minute or two. Science had advanced pretty far, it seemed.
She trembled as she looked around the interior of the scanner. It had dark grey walls that made her think of dirt. All she saw was grey, except for a green light that helped illuminate the inside of the chamber. Her mind yelled at her how wrong this was every time Elizabeth stepped inside one of these things, but she didn’t know why.
Thinking of James, Elizabeth tried to breathe while the machine came to life, thrumming around her. She closed her eyes and started singing a lullaby. She didn’t even pay attention to what she was singing to herself.
The door to the chamber opened and the nurse stood there. “All done,” she said as Elizabeth stepped out. “What was that song you were singing?”
“What song?” Elizabeth asked her as she headed back for the examining room.
“The song you started singing in there. It sounded pretty, like a lullaby, but I couldn’t quite place the language.” The nurse looked at her a moment. “It sounded… It almost sounded Welsh.”
“Couldn’t be,” Elizabeth stated. “I don’t know Welsh.”
Dr. Wilkerson peered at the two women as they finished the conversation. Elizabeth noticed him making a notation on the pad he was still looking at. He finally looked up at Elizabeth, a fake smile on his face as the nurse helped her up to the examining table.
“All right then, time to do things the old-fashioned way,” Dr. Wilkerson said as Elizabeth put her feet up in the stirrups and laid back.
Half an hour later, after every test had been run, Elizabeth finished getting dressed and was headed out of the office. The car wouldn’t be around for another fifteen minutes, but she figured she could just nip down to the corner and grab a coffee from the shop. Stuffing her hand in her pockets, Elizabeth pulled out James’ red hat and held it to her. She loved her little boy and would do anything for him. Apparently that meant giving up any chance of a normal job, since all David wanted to do was provide for them so they would “be safe,” or so he kept saying.
Entering the elevator at the end of the hall from Dr. Wilkerson’s office, Elizabeth suddenly felt a strange sensation. Her mind felt fuzzy and the lights seemed to hurt. Before she could press any of the buttons the doors slammed shut, but the elevator did not move. Elizabeth fell against the doors, hitting them with her fists.
“Hey! Something’s wrong! Get me out of here,” Elizabeth yelled. She hit the doors one more time and was about to hit the emergency button when her body grew warm and then went numb and all she saw was black.