AN: AU!fic. Set in S3 after Cutter's death and after Jenny leaves and Danny becomes team leader. In this Au, Abby's brother died when she was 14, and along with all of the other abby!headcanon stuff that crosses most people's minds as far as I know (abuse, etc), this led to au!abby being even more closed to others than regular abby is; au!abby has even more walls and ... issues. au!Abby's been so hurt by those she cares about that she won't let anyone close, won't even let herself care about the team as the family they are. And this au is also sort of... almost... an x-over with the Wizard of Oz, though it deviates wildly.

An2: I love Abby. However, my wizard of oz - themed au/xover would only work if i made her character flaws worse at the start of this. Just don't think I dislike her or anything ^^' *cuddles her*

"This is not my home, and you aren't my family, okay?!" All of the anger and the hurt had built up and she'd just kept repressing it, and now it burst from her in sharp words that she regretted the moment she saw the pain in Connor's eyes, and the shock and hurt on everyone else's, too.

They weren't completely false: something inside her told her if she let them close, it would only hurt worse; she had to be independant of anyone else, otherwise she would be weak. But still…

"Conn, I…"

Before she could even think to apologize or try to explain, his expression blanked, and it seemed like a switch had turned off as Connor turned away.

Then, suddenly, an explosion racked the ARC, and then everything was fire and smoke and confusion and pain and the world felt like it was spinning. Abby blacked out.

She woke up, blinking her eyes open to see a scene that reminded her a bit of the green grassy fields of the spaghetti junction, the one time they'd seen it. There was an anomaly spinning harmlessly several feet away, and she was alone. Or was she? Abby was sure she'd just heard whispering, and the tinkle of high pitched laughter.

"Hello?"

She was answered by giggles and someone hushing the other voices.

"Where am I?"

Behind her, someone cleared their throat, and she whipped around to see a very familiar-looking blonde-haired man smiling at her.

"Cutter?!"

"Hello Abby." The heretoforedeadProfessor said, his scottish accent as thick as ever, and he looked as healthy as he had the morning before his death three weeks ago.

"How?" She asked, looking at Cutter, incredulity written plain on her face.

"Ah, well, I'm nah, quite sure on th' details m'self."

"You're dead."

"Am I?"

"This must be a dream… there was an explosion…"

"I don't know if it is a dream or nah, but yah've gotta get home somehow. Your friends'll be missin' you either way." Cutter suggested, and Abby felt her cheeks flush as her words from before the explosion repeated themselves in her mind.

"Well, I'll have to wake up, or get back to my time." She paused. "Should I go through that anomaly?" Abby turned to face the swirling shards of time and space.

"Ah think it's as good a place ta start as any. But don't wander off the path." Cutter said, his voice sounding fainter now.

"What path?" When she turned to look, the Professor was gone, and there were thousands of miniature bubbles floating up into the clear blue sky. "Cutter?" No luck. The whispers and giggles were back, and now that she looked carefully, there was a path to the anomaly, lined with tiny yellow buttercups along either side.

"Follow the yellow brick road." Abby muttered under her breath as she started walking, reminded of nothing so much as the film she had watched all but once, before Jack had died, when she was 13. Regardless, there was nothing else she could do, and sitting here doing nothing didn't really suit Abby very much at all.

TBC: And i know i keep promising to finish stories and i always have a billion au ideas buzzing around my brain and finishing them is a whole 'nother story but i will eventually finish those and I'll finish this one too! :D So… yeah. Pinky promise.