Abby grabbed the green plastic bucket and grimaced at its contents. Connor spotted her expression and came over to see what was wrong.
"Hey Abs what's – oh." The bucket was filled to the brim with dead flies. Not only did it look disgusting, it smelt pretty bad too. Connor held his nose and watched Abby as she put on a pair of rubber gloves. "That's rank!"
"I've been putting this off for a while so the flies have started to – decay."
"What are you planning on doing with them?" Connor asked, still holding his nose.
Abby laughed at how nasal he sounded.
"It's time to feed bob." she announced.
"Is that the mammoth?"
"No it's the giant spider. You should know; you're the one who keeps naming things."
Connor remembered sheepishly.
"How did you manage to kill so many flies in the first place? Did you borrow a gas chamber?" he retorted.
Abby pulled a face.
"I have my ways. Do you want to watch?" she teased.
"God no! You know I hate spiders, when that thing came out of the anomaly…" he trailed off and his eyes misted over in memory of it.
"I know."
Abby remembered only too well, Connor had shook for the entire evening. When he first saw it he was rooted to the spot in fear. If it hadn't been for Becker Connor would've died.
"See you later. I should probably go fix the ADD. Again." he forced a smile out.
Abby was not fooled; even the mere mention of the incident scared him. Then again, it had only happened a few weeks ago.
She picked up the bucket and headed down to the menagerie. Bob had a large section of it all to himself. There she entered quietly. Bob was waiting there for her as usual. The black furball was around Abby's size except a lot fatter. This was not the first time she'd fed it but its many eyes gave her the creeps all the same. It wasn't hard to see why Connor was scared.
"You're being silly." she muttered to herself.
Abby delved a gloved hand into the bucket and slowly brought it out to reveal a small mountain of dead flies. She started to approach Bob concentrating on not dropping his slippery food. By the time she'd noticed his eyes narrow it was too late.
Connor was walking past the menagerie when he heard Abby's scream. He started to run to the source grabbing an EMD from Becker's surprised arm as he went. Becker, who was curious of what Connor was up to and wanted his gun back, followed. He found the geek staring dumbstruck through the glass of the enclosure.
"Connor?"
The student took a deep breath before running down to the door toting the EMD. Becker now turned to face what the geek had started at.
Abby lay on the floor. The bucket of flies had fallen over but Bob was much more interested in its human prey. Long teeth like daggers sucked at her arm like a vampire. Abby was pinned down by the huge spider and her screams were quickly muffled by its matted fur. It was smothering her. This is it. She thought.
Suddenly there was a loud thud followed by several more. Bob felt limp and a dead weight on top of her. Abby couldn't breathe. Then she heard a familiar grunt and slowly the dark hair of the spider disappeared. The whiteness of Connor's face was almost blinding in comparison.
"We- we're –" he gasped.
"We're going to get you straight to the medical bay." said Becker from behind her before picking her up.
He started to carry her through the ARC. Connor followed like a stray dog still panting partly from the exhaustion of pushing a huge spider, but mostly from fear.
"Are – you – okay?" he asked. Abby glanced down at herself. "Did that – thing – hurt you?"
"A bit." she admitted.
Connor glanced down and blanched. Abby didn't think it was possible for one guy to go that white.
"Jesus, Abby that's a bit of an understatement!"
They arrived at the medical bay and Becker laid Abby down on the nearest bed he could find and began to talk to a nurse. Connor had great difficulty in tearing his gaze away from the blood gushing out of Abby's arm but eventually fixed his eyes on her face. He tried to smile.
"You're going to be okay."
"You don't have to be brave for me Connor." she replied.
He put his head in his hands and stopped pretending.
"Please don't EVER do that to me again." He begged.
"Not planning to."
Abby's uninjured arm reached out to touch his face. He flinched.
"Sorry. Everything's making me jump."
"Connor look at me." Connor drew his hands away from his face. "Everything's going to be fine."
Shortly after the nurse joined the pair and bandaged up Abby's arm. Connor refused to leave despite the gore and held Abby's free hand throughout the entire thing.
"Okay I'm going to give you some painkillers. They'll act as a mild sedative but first I need to know, was the creature that bit you venomous?"
"I don't think so." Abby answered.
"Are you sure?" questioned the nurse.
"Fairly. There should be records in the menagerie-"
"I'll get them." Connor said instantly, glad to be finally doing something useful.
He got to his feet and left the medical bay. Cutter spotted him as he passed his office.
"Connor!"
"If you want to talk come with me. Otherwise I don't have time."
Surprised by the response Cutter followed.
"Connor are you okay?"
"I'm fine." he lied.
They entered the menagerie.
"Is this about Abby?" Connor pretended not to hear him as he searched through the neatly filed paperwork. Abby was painfully organised. "What you did was very brave."
"If I hadn't frozen maybe she'd have more of her arm left."
"Connor I saw the entire thing on CCTV. You unfroze, you saved her. Her injuries could've been far worse."
"GOT IT!" Connor yelled waving a piece of paper in the air. They set off on a march back to the medical bay. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about anyways Cutter?"
"Becker wants his gun back at some point." He reminded with a smile on his face. Connor glanced down. The EMD was still in his hand. He was clutching it so hard that his knuckles were white. "I'm surprised they let you keep it in the medical bay."
"Oh."
Connor handed it to Cutter. He'd completely forgotten that he even had it with him.
As Connor walked back over to Abby he noted the nurse's eyes flicker down to his hand and she smiled in relief.
"I've got the record." he triumphantly handing it over.
The nurse skimmed through the page whilst Connor waited with baited breath. She finally looked up.
"Bob?" she asked raising an eyebrow.
"It's his name." Connor replied firmly.
"Well Bob isn't venomous."
"Does this mean I can get the painkiller now?" piped up Abby.
The nurse nodded and injected the sedative into her arm. Connor watched as she fell asleep.
"Are you okay?" asked the nurse.
"I'm fine!" Connnor spluttered. "What makes you think I'm not?"
"You've been shaking for quite a while now. I was wondering if you needed treatment for shock."
"Thanks for the offer but I've got work to do."
Connor started to walk back towards the broken ADD.
"I'll take that as a no then." the nurse muttered.
He was examining wiring when Jenny approached.
"Cutter just told me, how is Abby?"
"She's sleeping. It bit her but she's going to be fine."
"Are you?"
"Why is everyone asking me that today? I'm fine."
Jenny decided to drop it. She could tell Abby to talk to him later at the flat.
"I suppose I should visit her."
"She'd like that."