Warnings: mild language
Disclaimer: This most definitely is not mine. I just put the words in order =D
Summary: Abby finds herself surrounded by doppelgangers…and only one Connor. Takes place in limbo between 2.03 & 2.04.
A/N: Response to iEvenstarEstel's and Iellix's donation of the Connors from "Cloudy With A Chance Of Connors." (READ IT!) With permission, it's a spinoff of iEvenstarEstel's idea, reversed with a little twist :P This plotbunny has been quietly nibbling away in the back of my head for a while now, and I needed a break from Hatter/Alice, so here we are =D
Dead Ringer - Chapter 1
"Oh, Connor, you are so funny!"
Gag me with a spoon.
If Abby had to listen to Caroline's syrupy voice much longer, she'd be forced to cut a bitch. What used to be a pleasant respite from the daily grind of chasing after dinosaurs, (and Helen Cutter, conceivably the most hazardous creature they'd encountered thus far), had now been transformed into a tutorial in awkwardness. She sat hunched on the chair with her arms crossed, aiming not-so-subtle glares in Caroline's direction, who had claimed Abby's rightful spot on the sofa. Next to Connor. Playing with his scarf. Simpering at him through her shiny pink lipgloss. Connor was bumbling like always, his hesitant hands never finding the right place to settle, his rosebud mouth running like a motor. His nervous laughter and perma-smirk were dead giveaways to just how out of his element he truly was.
In fact, not one of them was actually watching the movie. Abby had to repress her smile when she caught Connor peeking out the corner of his eye at the telly, only to be yanked back to attention by his red scarf.
Time for a jog. Abby couldn't bear witness to any more of this spectacle. She needed to get out of the flat and get her body moving before she lost it. With a superfluous amount of chair-creaking and bone-cracking, the blonde heaved a great sigh that belied her petite stature and stood. She headed to her room to snag her iPod, where she was greeted by enthusiastic chirruping.
"Sorry, Rex! She's here."
It was bad enough that Caroline had weaseled her way into their DVD "dates," but Connor had insisted that Rex be cooped up in Abby's room whenever she came over. The coelurosauravus had actually nipped at the brunette upon their first encounter, (much to Abby's amusement), and the girl was frightened of him, so Connor had put his foot down.
"You see right through her, don't you, Rex?"
Rex chirped and flew to Abby's shoulder.
Caroline was so phony and far too put together, not at all the type of girl Abby would have thought Connor would go for. Connor seemed like he'd be more into the quirky tomboys. Someone a little rough around the edges and not so prissy. Someone who wasn't sketched out by a harmless prehistoric lizard.
Someone like herself.
Abby shook her head vehemently, like a soaking dog shaking the water off its fur, as if the motion would rid her brain of that thought…a thought which had been creeping up on her far too often as of late. Tickling Rex under the chin, who whistled and glided back to his perch on the windowsill, she switched gears.
Since when did Connor get to put his foot down? This was her flat.
Abby fastened her Velcro iPod armband, laced up her trainers, and bounded down the stairs and out onto the street, leaving her bedroom door ajar. She didn't bother saying goodbye and, earbuds snugly in place, pretended not to hear Connor calling after her.
A full hour later, in much higher spirits, Abby was bouncing her way back toward her flat, rocking out to The Clash. Caroline's royal blue saloon was still parked on the street.
Fucking hell. Abby had conveniently blocked out the presence of Connor's guest. She'd also momentarily blanked on his master plan for the weekend: viewing all three Lord of the Rings films. Extended editions. Caroline wasn't going anywhere any time soon, and Abby wasn't about to trudge up the stairs and ruin a perfectly agreeable endorphin high.
She snuck the front door open a crack and snatched her car keys from the wall hook. Hopping into her Mini, she plugged her iPod into the stereo system and cranked the volume. The keys jingled in the ignition, and she sped away from her flat with no particular destination in mind.
Eventually she reached the outskirts of London. It was a sunny late afternoon, and she decided she might as well go on driving out into the countryside. She pulled over to fuel up, and was back on her way.
Abby loved taking a spin out on the open road. While she liked the convenience of living in the city, she felt more in tune with herself when surrounded by nature. That had been one of the best things about working for the zoo; it was like a little oasis of controlled nature in the midst of modern society. It was also one of the things that made her secretly wish for new anomalies to open to the distant past, despite the accompanying stress and danger. There was something about seeing true, unaffected wilderness that made her understand how Helen could have chosen to live as the sole human being on the planet for so long.
Still, Abby didn't think she could tolerate being so completely alone in that capacity. True, she enjoyed her solitude, but she couldn't leave her loved ones behind like Helen had done. Not that she'd mind terribly never having to deal with the fragments of her dysfunctional family again, but…
She'd miss Connor. His bubbly laughter and genuine smile. There was no denying that.
Abby closed her eyes and exhaled, shaking her head again, jostling such thoughts from her brain cells. Connor was her flatmate. Her co-worker. A total dweeb and definitely not her type.
No, he was too sweet, too chivalrous, too intelligent to even remotely be her usual type. Plus, he had a girlfriend. A pretty, well-dressed, cool and collected, sci-fi loving girlfriend…
When Abby reopened her eyes, she was startled to see an anomaly pop into existence on the road barely two metres ahead. She slammed on the brakes and swerved to the left, but she was unable to avoid driving straight into the flickering orb. In the blink of an eye, the Mini had crashed to a dead halt and her airbag had exploded out of the steering wheel, smacking Abby in the face as her body jerked forward.
Darkness.
"Oi! This one's comin' around!"
Why did Connor sound like he was underwater? Mascara-coated eyelashes fluttered open. Black pupils dilated and shrunk within blue irises in an effort to focus on the brownish blob above them.
"Connor?" Abby tried to sit up, but felt dizzy, reminiscent of a few weekends ago when she'd had far too much to drink at her mate's hen's night. Multi-colored spots clouded her vision. Why did her face hurt? She touched her lips; they were warm and sticky. She moved her hand into her line of sight; her fingers were coated with blood. Venturing a timid poke at her nose, followed by a sharp hiss and acute pain, Abby determined that it was broken. But why was her nose broken?
In a flash, the anomaly and the collision came back to her. Bloody airbags! She tried to sit up again, but burning nausea overwhelmed her, and she flopped back down.
"Abby, don't try to move, okay? I reckon ya hit your head pretty hard. Medic says you got a nasty contusion."
"I think I'm gonna be sick."
"What? Oh, right. Yeah. Just a sec…"
Connor zipped off, and Abby tried to focus on her surroundings in an attempt to squelch the spinning and the nausea. She was lying on a cot in the medical bay at the ARC. The team must have found her when they responded to the anomaly alert.
When Connor reappeared momentarily with a bin, Abby realized that he'd changed clothes since she'd last seen him at the flat.
How long had she been out?
"Here we are!"
He'd arrived not a moment too soon. Abby gagged and leaned over the side of the cot to retch violently into the bin.
Connor patted her back. "S'alright."
When she'd heaved her last heave, spitting dryly into the bin, Abby felt loads better. "Conn?" She smacked her lips. "Water, please?"
"Water, right. On it."
Abby gingerly propped herself up on the pillows. Her body ached and her head was pounding something fierce. She snatched the glass from Connor, guzzling it down greedily, gasping for air when she handed it back to him.
That's when she saw them.
Peering in through the viewing window were three identical elfin blondes.
Identical to her.
Three Abby doppelgangers, watching her every move. Each one had her hair styled in a spiky pixie cut and wore heavy, dark makeup and black, edgy clothing. Their faces seemed young, and they reminded her of a phase she'd gone through in secondary school. She'd put a lot of energy into giving off a tough vibe so people would take her diminutive self seriously. She'd gotten into so many fights throughout school…
Maybe she'd hit her head harder than she thought? Abby rubbed her eyes, keeping them closed tight a little longer than necessary, apprehensive of what she'd see when she popped them back open.
The triplets were still there, huddled and whispering conspiratorially to each other.
"Erm, Conn?"
"Yeah?"
"Um, do you see…do you see, uh…" She gulped, nodding her head towards the window. She wasn't sure if she was more afraid that he did see the triplets or that they were figments of her imagination.
Connor looked to where she'd indicated and sighed. "Oh…yeah, about that, Abby…"
But he didn't get to finish what he was about to say. The door to the medical bay burst open, and another doppelganger strode in.
This one wore her long blonde hair, which was dyed with turquoise stripes, in two braids. She sported orange-rimmed rectangular glasses and a bright green bandana patterned with bold peace signs. Her form-fitting yellow t-shirt was printed with an artistic rendering of the Millennium Falcon, and her baggy eggplant-purple cargo pants bubbled over a pair of red Converse All Stars. A dusting of freckles was clearly visible over her cheekbones; there was no makeup on her face.
"Hey, Abs," Connor grinned at the newcomer. "This one finally came around!"
Vibrant Abby tripped over her feet and blushed a little at Connor's smile before turning to Abby. "How are you feeling, Abby?"
Either Abby was hallucinating, or she was still knocked unconscious. "Well, apart from the throbbing pain in the back of my head and the fact that I'm hallucinating, I feel pretty spectacular," she giggled a little maniacally to herself.
Concern flickered over Vibrant Abby's features. She crossed the room and sat beside Abby's cot. "Sorry, but you're not seeing things… You came through an anomaly to an alternate timeline. See?" She squeezed her hand. "You wouldn't be able to feel that if I wasn't real, would you?"
"Maybe not…and them?"
"Yep," Vibrant Abby chuckled. "The Three Musketeers! Or more like the three Lone Gunmen!" She snorted and pushed up her glasses.
Abby smiled weakly, not really paying attention, a million thoughts racing through her mind. "So, where…er…when…am I? What happened?"
If she thought her head hurt before, it was positively pounding with trying to wrap itself around Vibrant Abby's convoluted exposition. Something about a failed experiment with DNA extrapolation and the space-time continuum and pinpointing dimensions and the multiverse and…she didn't understand half the stuff spewing from the other Abby's mouth. She got that there were a lot more Abbys in the ARC, all having come through an anomaly from a different time and place.
"The experiment didn't so much fail as work a little too well," Vibrant Abby pointed out. "Anyway, when you came flying through your anomaly in your car, you crashed right into my ADD, smashing it to bits, and the anomalies closed immediately. I'm just gonna have to work around the clock to get the machine up and running again, then figure out a way to send you all home."
Abby furrowed her eyebrows, perplexed. "Your ADD?"
Vibrant Abby giggled. "Why are so many of you so surprised by that? Of course my ADD! I built it, didn't I?"
~TBC~
A/N: What is it with me and vomiting and medical bays? At the moment I have a few vague concepts for developments of this little story, could go any direction, and I am wide open to suggestion =D I'll take title suggestions too, I drew a total blank :P