"Watch it." A familiar voice cried out as the construction crews worked furiously to rebuild. The slightly nervous almost frightened tone of his words pulled her attention away from the sorting she was doing. Abby Maitland, resident A.R.C. zoologist had been cataloging the many unidentified computer components that seemed scattered around the only real table in the room so far. The rebuild of the A.R.C. had been ongoing now for five days and it was amazing to her how quickly Lester could get things moving when he was of a mind to. He had predicted that the facilities would be back online within two weeks of the fire, and damned if he wasn't beating his own prediction. Even now they were bringing in the new parts for the detector that Connor had to rebuild from scratch.
"It's easy to rebuild it, now that I know how the pieces should fit together." Connor had told Lester when the man in charge had demanded that they put all their efforts into rebuilding. And now here Connor was watching three large men carry in and deposit the pieces that he would have to glue back together with his own special brand of genius. She could just see the frustration in his tired eyes as he flitted from box to box checking and rechecking that all the parts he needed were there. Abby sighed and pushed herself away from the table that she was standing in front of.
"Connor." She said loudly to get his attention. He nodded absently hands digging through more parts. After the third time she watched him yawn in as many minutes she tried again.
"Connor." She dropped her hand on his shoulder to gently pull him away from the boxes. In his tired state he let her pull him back a little too far causing him to lean slightly against her legs and he closed his eyes. "We've been at this all day, and the parts will still be there tomorrow. Come on, let's go home and get some sleep." She tried. It was true, they had been working all day, cleaning and sorting through the ruble, reconstructing and testing all that went along with getting things back into some sort of order. It was trying on a good day, and none of them had been sleeping well to start with, Connor most of all.
Absently she stroked his hair; as yet another yawn racked his body. Her soft blue eyes turned hard as ice as she tossed a glance up to the top of the ramp where Lester's office was. She could see him in the doorway of his office, buttoning his jacket before descending to mingle with the peons. She could practically hear his frustrated sigh from all the way down here. Lester stepped to the railing and shoved a hand into his pants pocket with annoyance.
"Mr. Temple, your parts have arrived I see." He said tersely looking at his watch. Connor jumped slightly and leaned away from Abby shooting her a sheepish look of thanks before nodding to the man at the top of the ramp
"Yes, I'll get this up and running in a few." Connor said around a yawn. Lester rolled his eyes and sighed, once again looking at his watch. With resignation he pushed away from the railing and descended the ramp to the main floor of the operations area. He stood with his arms crossed over the boxes making Connor feel like a bug on the head of pin, something Lester, in Abby's opinion enjoyed doing more than was necessary. She could feel her hackles raise as Lester sighed once again watching Connor fumble parts out of the boxes. For one moment Abby could swear she saw a look of concern flash over the older man's face as Connor yawned yet again. The look was quickly covered up by a sigh and a determined look at his watch.
"Go home Temple, this project will be here tomorrow." Lester said shaking out the sleeves of his suit jacket. "Now, go." He snapped at the look of pure relief on Connor's face. With that dismissal, Lester walked toward the doors. "In fact, everyone go home." He said loudly to the construction crews. "I've had enough of this noise for the day." He added in answer to the silence that followed as the crews stopped what they were doing.
"Oh and I expect that to be working by tomorrow Temple, so please get to it first thing." He shot over his shoulder before he exited the room.
* * * * *
The short car ride from office to the flat was always a time for Abby to unwind. She usually would listen with half an ear to Connor babble on about one thing or another nodding along and interjecting when he said something that required her input. This particular car ride however was very different. Every so often she would catch herself looking across the seats at Connor as he stared silently out the side window. She wondered, not for the first time if he had been thinking about the tiresome day they all had or something else entirely. She caught a glimpse in the passing streetlight of a tear rolling down his cheek confirming for her exactly what he was thinking about.
Her heart tightened a little and a she could feel a lump in her throat as she watched that tear fall. It made her start just the tiniest bit to realize that the tightening and the lump had nothing to do with losing Cutter. Shaking herself a bit she turned the radio on and put on a fake smile for Connor's sake.
"So, dinner then off to bed with you." She said attempting to pull his thoughts back to the time at hand and away from that day. Connor jumped slightly as if her words had been an electric jolt to his system and he nodded tiredly.
"Mmmm." It was all he could manage to get out before a rampant yawn ran away with the rest of his voice.
* * * * *
They shambled through the door of the flat without incident, and Abby went through the motions of feeding the many animals. She could hear Connor shuffling around the room in the background as he checked on Sid and Nancy.
"I think something quick for dinner is probably the best thing, yeah." She called out as she rummaged through the kitchen to make them both something to eat. Silence was her only answer. She poked her head into the living room to check on Connor. He was stretched out on the couch. His legs hung limply over the arm of the sofa and he had thrown one of his arms over his eyes to block the light from above. His other hand stroked Sid and Nancy as the two pushed each other out of the way in an effort to be the one receiving his attentions. Abby smiled at the sight and before she had even realized she had moved she was standing in front of the couch.
"Connor, shall I make you some soup?" She asked quietly, not wanting to disturb him. He vaguely grunted in answer. With a sigh she leaned forward and gently lifted his head. Abby twisted quickly and dropped herself in the spot on the couch he had previously been in and dropped his head into her lap unceremoniously before he even had a chance to react. When he did finally realize what she had done and tried to get up she pressed down on his chest with one hand effectively trapping him back against her.
"Not even remotely hungry are you." She said to calm the panic in his eyes. He expelled the breath he was holding as she touched his chest with more force than expected before answering her.
"No…not really" He said. Rex flitted down from his perch in the loft with a soft chirp and landed solidly on Connor's chest taking the place of her hand. They both smiled tiredly as the lizard made himself comfortable. They sat peacefully for a few minutes just enjoying the calm of the house before it suddenly hit Abby that she was sitting in a very intimate position with Connor Temple of all people. This thought forced her over tired brain to race in ways she most definitely did not want it to go.
"Connor…"She said shakily. He grunted in response more to her voice than to what she may have said. "Connor…do you think it will take long to get the detector up and running?" She asked trying to keep her thoughts from straying to how nice it felt sitting there with him. He sighed and beneath his closed lids, she watched his eyes jump as he mentally calculated the answer to her question.
"Shouldn't." He said, though it came out more drawn out than it would had he been more awake. Abby nodded in response but could think of nothing more to say on the subject. So she did what she always did when she could think of nothing to say on a particular topic, she changed topics. The silence stretched as she tried to force her tired brain into another topic. But all she could think to ask him about would hurt and reproduce that single tear she had seen in the car.
As she tried to think of something, anything to say she absently stroked his hair. He turned his face toward her stomach and sighed contentedly. Rex chirped again, and repositioned himself on Connor's chest, curling up into a little lizard ball. It made her smile to know that Rex had finally forgiven Connor for bringing that horrible woman into their lives. That thought brought the whole Caroline fiasco to her mind and one moment in particular that had lately been cropping up more and more in her mind during that time. That time on that cliff where her life had hung in the balance and all it took was his words to pull her away from the edge. And then her mind refreshed itself with a particular conversation she had recently had with Jenny about the subject.
"Abby, have you…have you ever been attracted to somebody that you…you don't even like?" Jenny had asked her in that old abandoned house. It was obvious that Jenny was asking advice about Cutter and Abby would be more than glad to give it to her friend.
"Ha! I fall for the wrong men all the time. One thing I do know. If you're interested don't bother waiting for the man to make the first move because you could die of old age before anything happens." She had answered the very serious question with what she thought was a very solid idea, and something Jenny could handle.
"Are you going to take your own advice?" Jenny had thrown back at her.
"Hmm…Thinking about it." Abby answered flippantly. Strangely enough though she had been thinking about it, thinking about it a lot lately. Maybe it was time to take her own advice.
"Connor." Was that high pitched sound her voice, really?
"Mmmmm." His answer was more a rumble deep in his throat than actual words. Abby swallowed the tightness in her throat and tried again.
"Connor, I've got something to tell you and I want you to understand that I'm not trying to force you into anything, I just…I just have been thinking about things a lot lately and especially with losing Steven and then Cutter and, well…I just couldn't bare it if something were to happen to you and I hadn't told you how I feel. I mean I know how you feel about me, but…well…" She was babbling, and that was most assuredly not the Abby way. It was Connor who usually babbled on and on and never really said what he was thinking, not her, but this was too important, too heavy, just too much. She took a deep breath and tried again, hoping that this time she sounded more like herself and less like Connor.
"Connor…I wanted you to know that…" A soft snore stopped her mid-sentence. Her jaw dropped open and immediately her eyes snapped to his face. Asleep, Connor had fallen asleep there on the couch with his head in her lap and her stroking his hair. He had fallen asleep while she had tried to confess everything that she had been afraid of and everything she had been feeling.
Suddenly dissatisfied with her particular situation, Abby gently extracted herself from underneath Connor and placed a fluffy pillow under his head. She pulled a blanket over him and Rex and let the two of the sleep. It was probably better this way anyway, after all who knew how things would change if he knew the truth, and frankly she wasn't ready for things between them to change, not just yet. Abby leaned over and kissed Connor's forehead lightly before pushing herself away from the couch completely.
"Good night Connor, see you in the morning." She whispered. Smiling to herself, she set about making herself something to eat. Connor may be too tired to eat, but Abby was simply famished.