He hadn't been expecting anyone, so the shrill buzz of his doorbell in the middle of the horror flick he was watching was enough to make him jump, and he breathed a sigh of relief that no one had been there to see. Glancing at the clock, he saw it was 11pm.

Who the hell? Whoever it was hadn't buzzed to be let in to the building, and he had no idea if that was a good thing or not.

When he looked through the peephole, it was a relief to see it was just Abby, which at least explained the late hour.

As soon as the door was open she bounced into his arms for a hug, then went back out into the corridor only to reappear seconds later with a huge parcel. It was large and flat, and he couldn't help laughing at the image - pigtails and eyes just peeping over the top, and huge black boots at the bottom.

"Let me take that," then, a few seconds later, "holy crap, what is this? It's heavy!"

"I know. It's for your birthday."

Tony staggered back to the living room. "My birthday's not- till tomorrow- Abs- why'd you- bring it to- today?" he managed to force out between gasps for air. Once he had it safely propped up behind the couch, he stood for a moment to get his breath back, and just stared at the enormous package. He couldn't imagine what she'd got him - with Abby it could be almost anything, and the sheer size of the thing was worrying.

"Well, I didn't want to bring it to work with me, and I wanted you to have it on your birthday, and it was in the car because I just went to collect it, so..." She shrugged her shoulders. "I hope that's OK. I didn't think you'd want to have to bring it home after your birthday drinks, either."

He grinned. "That," he said, "was a good plan, Abs. So do I open it now or tomorrow, or...?"

She tipped her head to one side. "Well... I guess that's up to you. You do only turn thirty seven once, so you should probably leave it for your actual birthday. But if you want to open it now, that's OK too, 'cause then I'd get to see your reaction."

He raised an eyebrow at her. He could ask what the special deal with thirty seven was, but this was Abby, and there was no guarantee he'd follow her explanation even if she had one.

"Tell you what, you give me a lift home tomorrow night and I'll open it then," he suggested. With the size of the thing he was a little worried about what that first reaction might be. He hadn't expected to get anything, really, beyond not having to buy his own alcohol tomorrow, and a gift that big - he didn't want to hurt her feelings if it was a little strange, when she'd obviously gone all out. At least if he was a bit tipsy he'd have an excuse if he said the wrong thing. And with Abby, there was a strong possibility it would be a little strange.

She beamed, and hugged him again, which reassured him he'd made the right decision. Then she spotted the paused DVD. "Halloween 8? Can I stay and watch the rest with you?"

He laughed. "Sure thing."

He didn't think about it much, that first night, when he woke at 3am. He was pretty sure he'd had a bad dream, though not, thank God, about vampires. The details had slipped away quickly, and he attributed it to watching horror late at night, with Abby speculating on how the Myers character could still be alive, and the scientific possibilities and impossibilities and probabilities of various movie villains. He'd started drifting off when she got to Hannibal Lecter and human cannibalism, and being Abby she'd made sure he made it to bed before she left to drive home, apparently still as full of energy as she had been twelve hours ago at work.

His heart was beating fast, but that didn't seem too strange on waking up from a nightmare. He checked the time out of habit, then turned over in bed, finding a cool spot on his pillow. He fell back to sleep quickly, and in the morning he didn't even remember his disturbed night.