Author's Note - Thanks for reading! Was rewatching Primeval and I couldn't get enough of Stephen (I mean, who can), so this little thing was born. Just a one shot - takes place mid season 1. Enjoy & rate and review, if you extra-enjoy it.

Enigmatic, and the Lizard Girl

Abby Maitland stared at the short ceiling of the room she was in, and gave a louder than intentional sigh. Bloody Connor's bloody snoring, she grumbled to herself. Back home in the flat they shared, he'd slept in the spare room, so she'd never heard how much of a menace he was at night. But now that they were being forced to sleep in the same room, he was loud to be heard.

She sat up slightly to watch him in the dark, which her eyes had long adjusted to due to being awake so long - he was practically passed out in the arm chair in the corner, with his limbs all splayed out and his mouth hanging slightly open, his blanket barely covering a knee. What a charmer.

She gave another angry sigh and flopped back down onto her pillow.

Damn this damn bed and breakfast and damn this whole bloody trip, she grumbled again. They were…. where were they, exactly? Somewhere far up north, in the middle of nowhere. Somewhere that had taken a few hours to drive to. One of her absent fears about the anomaly situation had crystallized: one had opened in a spot that wasn't accessible by a fairly short car ride. Where was the next one going to open? Scotland? Indonesia? The ocean? Middle of the busiest intersection in a major city? They could only pray it would not.

It was a daunting thought, for sure. And after a whole day of searching for a creature, a sign, the anomaly, anything, they'd still come up short. Abby herself was annoyed they'd traveled so far on this tip and had gotten nowhere yet. Add that to her growing list of annoyances.

And the only hotel within miles of here was tiny little bed and breakfast run by quite an old couple. By the time they'd gotten there, only one room wasn't taken by hikers or passing backpackers. And Cutter had insisted they take it. No need to alarm the local residents, Claudia agreed, with an overwhelming number of agents and soldiers and so on. Let the kids get a good night of sleep.

Now Abby thought maybe it would have been a better idea to just insist she sleep in her car. The B and B's room was a lot like the rest of it - quaint and boring. It had pale blue walls and lace curtains round the windows. There were generic framed pictures of drawings of flowers hanging on two walls, one wooden rocking chair in one corner, and a drab brown arm chair in the other, which was currently occupied by Connor. The bed Abby was trying (and failing) to fall asleep on had a, surprise, grandma-ish looking floral bedspread.

"You think if we shove a pillow down his throat, he'd quiet down?" said a soft, husky voice from beneath her.

Abby rolled over and peeked over the side of the bed, where fellow team member Stephen Hart had decided he'd sleep, with a blanket and a pillow on the beige carpet. It was quite nice of the guys to be willing to give up the bed for her but she now felt bad that he had to contend with both the hard floor and the snoring of Connor.

She chuckled. Stephen had his long arms folded behind his head, on the one pillow he'd requisitioned. In the dimness she could make out how the motion made the muscles on his arms bulge out even more than usual. Thank goodness for t shirts, she thought slyly.

"I'm sorry," she whispered back, genuinely meaning it. "I had no idea."

"Don't you two share a flat?" he asked, opening his eyes to look at her.

"Don't exactly sleep in the same bed or anything, do we!" she denied quickly.

He shrugged, giving a small smirk.

"What do I know. Flatmate sexual tension… happens on TV."

Abby gave an audible snort then quickly pressed her hands to her lips. She peeked

over at Connor's armchair to make sure she'd not woken him. Let at least one of them get a good night of sleep.

She looked over at Stephen, who was laughing silently to himself, holding his own fingers over his lips. Giving an amused scowl, she grabbed the pillow on her other side as quiet as she could and threw it onto him. He caught it and chuckled again.

"Thanks," he whispered, squeezing the pillow. "Floor's a bit…."

"Hard?" she asked, feeling bad. He shrugged again.

Flatmate sexual tension. Oh god, is that what he really thought? She enjoyed Connor's presence in their home, he was a nice bloke and a good friend but sexual tension was taking their relationship much, much further then it needed to be taken. She peeked down at Stephen again.

What she'd said to him during caper with the sea monster in the reservoir - "I fancied you for a bit, but I don't anymore, ok?"; it turned round and round in her head. And him telling her that he "liked" her. Things were so busy she barely had time to think of the exchange but it hadn't exactly left her head.

Sexual tension - she wished.

"You know…" she began with a pause, turning round to look at the other side of the bed. She decided to go for it.

"It's… pretty big up here. I mean, I'm small. You could come and take the other side, if you wanted."

He looked at her with those enigmatic eyes of his, his angular face not betraying much emotion. He had a good poker face, that she knew about him. A pretty sexy one, if she was being honest.

"Only if you want, though. I figure, you already have to listen to snoring, why have to take the hard floor."

She held her breath. Stephen looked down, seemingly weighing his options. She wasn't sure exactly which she herself would prefer. You're playing with fire, Maitland, her sensible side told her.

"If it's alright with you," he whispered, finally looking back at her. He gave one of his crooked sort of smirk-smiles that drove her crazy. "That's nice, sure, I will."

She let out her breath and felt her heart rate going up a bit. Sharing a bed with Stephen Hart, now saying this wasn't something she hadn't fantasized about before would be a flat out lie.

Abby watched Stephen getting up silently, grabbing his two pillows and blanket, and crossing round the bed, keeping his eyes on the sleeping Connor the whole time should he wake him. Abby agreed silently that, suddenly woken up, Connor might find the situation weird. Oh, Connor - a sweet fella she admitted, but she was glad that it was Stephen she was sharing a bed with, and not him.

Stephen lifted the granny-floral comforter and slid his lanky form beneath it, replacing his pillow behind his head.

"Thanks," he murmured. "I appreciate it."

She gave him a little nod, pushing some of her snow blonde hair out of her eyes, keenly aware of the space between them.

"This solves the uncomfortable floor problem… but the snoring…."

Laying on his back, he turned his head over at her, that smirk back on his lips and his eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Got any tranquilizer in your bag?" she suggested innocently.

He chuckled, and she watched the way the small amount of moonlight from the window illuminated on his straight collar bones and neck in a dim blue light.

"Now, why would you think that?"

"You're just very full of surprises," she replied mysteriously, feeling a small thrill in her chest as she watched his eyes on her. He raised one of his angular brows, which caused her to hold in a giggle.

"Really?"

"Surprised nobody's ever told you that before," she said, turning to lie on the shoulder closer to him. She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "You're a laboratory technician, so called-"

"Hold on - so called?"

"Okay, lab technician, full stop," she conceded, looking up as she thought. "For a… whatever exactly Cutter is. But then you have quite a diverse skill set outside that."

He looked at her with an amused, quizzical expression. Feeling eager to air something Abby had wondered for a long time, she propped herself up on an elbow.

"Well, aside from the science knowledge, you can scuba dive, you're an amazing shot, and you've saved more than a few people during this whole thing due to…. reflexes. Where does a paleontologist's assistant pick those skills up?"

"Plenty of people can scuba dive and shoot." he countered reasonably, folding his arms back behind his head. "And I take slight issue with being given that title."

"Well, I suppose, just wondering if you're like, secretly James Bond or something."

She watched him breathlessly as he turned an amused smile toward her.

"If you want to pretend I am, you're welcome to."

"Am I, then," she replied, smiling and biting her lip. "Just checking if you're some sort of secret government plant."

"I'm my own man," he murmured. "Always have been, don't worry about that."

"I still think you're enigmatic."

The corner of his mouth flicked up.

"Enigmatic, huh… I kind of like that title."

"What's my title, then?" she whispered, all but having forgotten where they were and what they were doing there, so wrapped up was she in this conversation.

Just then, Connor gave a particularly loud snort and caused Abby to give a start; as his snoring had faded to background noise to her at this point. She slid off her own elbow that was propping herself up, collapsing onto her pillow and covered her eyes with her hands, convulsed in silent laughter.

"Quite alright, there?" Stephen's smooth, husky voice came to her. She nodded, still covering her eyes, and smiled.

"You didn't give me a title yet. 'Zookeeper' isn't my best. I've been described as 'Lizard Girl' on a few occasions, I'll give you that."

"Lizard Girl?!"

She nodded again and fell back into silent laughter. Peeking out of her fingers she noticed he too was laughing quietly to himself.

"I can't remember the last time I've laughed this much in this little time," he said after a few silent moments of the two of them just lying in the dark together. She looked over at him and saw that he was smiling, rubbing his brow as he did so.

"Well, you're welcome," she whispered back. "Glad I'm of some use. Because I don't know how useful I am on this whole….. team."

"You're plenty useful," he replied quickly. "Everyone has their part on in this group. That's how we've made it so well, so far."

She shrugged, feeling a little uncomfortable. Abby suddenly felt a bit chilled despite the mild temperature of the room. She reached under the covers and rubbed her bare arms up and down.

"I suppose, just feel like I've sort of… stumbled onto this. Cutter's the leader, of course, then there's Connor who knows more about dinosaurs than probably anyone I've ever met, and you with your grab bag of mystery skills. And Claudia with her organising and so I'm just there."

"That's not true," he replied after a moment. He rolled onto his shoulder to face her. "Are you cold?"

"Just a sudden chill," she dismissed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"You're a strong addition, I mean… your presence is comforting to us."

"Comforting." she repeated, unable to hide the slight tartness of her tone. She stared at the ceiling.

"I mean, that's a poor word. What I mean is that you… hold us together in a way that the rest of us aren't able to." Stephen reasoned.

Abby didn't look at him, just lay in the silence for a few minutes, stewing over the situation. It was true that she'd always felt like she had less to bring to the table. Sure, Connor could be a klutz, but he knew science and paleontology in a way that she could never. And Stephen was as reliable as one's own right hand. He and Cutter had a nearly seamless professional relationship. Where did she stand in all this?

"For how long is that going to be useful?" she asked suddenly, looking over at him, feeling a rush of many emotions at once. "I mean, look at where we are, in the middle of a bloody moor, God knows, really… I've been afraid for a long time, you know? That one of these was gonna open somewhere out of our league."

His brows furrowed.

"This isn't out of our league," he whispered in reply. "We're going to-"

"What I mean is, it's not exactly twenty minutes down the road, is it? What if one opens in... China? Or California? Somewhere far. Or somewhere inaccessible. Say, the bottom of the ocean. We're not close to figuring these things out, and it feels like we're on the brink of something out of our control."

He was silent.

"Furthermore," she continued, the cork having been removed and all her grievances were now flowing fully out of her. "What can I do about it? Bloody nothing."

There were a few moments of silence.

"I understand how you feel," Stephen began quietly. "About feeling as if there isn't anything you can do. We all feel like that. But you're so far from useless, Abby. We'd go nuts without you around."

"You mean, dealing with Connor on your own?" she replied, her usual sarcasm creeping its way through her sudden gloom.

Stephen gave her one of his crooked smirks, practically beckoning her to smile back.

"And- don't be afraid. We're gonna be fine."

Abby wanted to laugh loudly at this pronouncement.

"I think we're beyond fine at this point, but alright. We'll always have big strong enigmatic you there to save the day."

"I do feel protective over you," he murmured, watching her with eyes that betrayed no understandable emotion.

She raised an eyebrow, hiding the fact that she felt a thrill in her chest.

"The team as a whole, or me specifically?" she asked slyly. He broke into a crooked smile.

"What would you prefer I say."
Abby ran her tongue over her lower lip.

"Whatever you really feel." she breathed, the tension of the moment only punctured by Connor's snores.

"God, I can't concentrate on a thing with that damn snoring," Stephen said suddenly, as if he read her mind, his brows furrowing.

"What is it that you want to concentrate on so badly?" she asked rhetorically, rolling onto her back and grinning at the ceiling.

"You."

The statement caught her extremely off guard, and she turned her head to look at him. Before she could say anything, he'd quickly crossed the space between them and, gently took a hold of her face. She caught eyes with him for the briefest of seconds, hers wide in surprise, before he lowered his face to hers and caught her lips in his own.

Feeling herself melting like a bit of butter next to a hot stove and somehow simultaneously as if all the blood in her veins had suddenly gotten to boiling temperatures, she quickly wrapped her fair arms around his neck in an effort to pull him closer and deepen their embrace. Keenly aware was she of the way his strong arms felt as they moved to her back, the way their bodies, such different sizes, felt pressed together, the wafts of his smell that snared her senses.

Several moments passed thus before she pulled her head back a bit. Her heart within her chest beat fast.

"What are you doing?" she blurted out in a whisper, breathless with excitement and arousal.

"I don't know," he answered honestly, staring at her as if he'd been surprised he'd found himself in this position. "I just felt like…."

"Kissing me?"

She grinned at him, drinking in the way his body felt pressed against her own.

"Can't say I ever imagined it would be in this context," she murmured. After a moment's more pause in which all that could be heard was their slightly heavier breathing and Connor's snores, she instigated another kiss, deeper this time, with more passion. Stephen sank onto his back and held her pressed against him tightly. His hands slid under the bottom of her shirt, pressing against the bare skin of her lower pack. She shivered at the feeling.

"Man," she said after a bit longer, when she'd pulled back again. "You have no idea what I'd like to do to you right now,"

"I may have an inkling," he murmured in reply, grinning at her as his stroked her back. "May not be the perfect place, however…"

He lifted a hand and pushed a piece of Abby's hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear. She loved how soft and gentle his hands felt as they brushed past her cheek. And these were the same hands that had cocked a gun and shot attacking creatures point blank as they came at him full speed. It was enough to drive a girl crazy.

"Abby," Stephen began, gently pushing her away after she'd pressed her lips against his neck. "Maybe let's… wait for now."

She jutted out her lower lip sarcastically, folding her arms over his broad chest and resting her chin on them.

"What, you don't like it?" she asked coyly, watching him from her sideways angle.

"No," he said with a small breath. "It's driving me a little mad, to be honest, to make you stop, but, considering the context…. maybe we should get some sleep."

She chuckled.

"As long as you get promise me that the next time, you won't stop me."

She giggled at the excited look in his eye and he shook his head.

"I promise."
Abby smiled again and leaned forward to press her lips against his, relishing in the soft warmth of it, and how his hair that she'd so much fantasized about running her hands through felt beneath her fingers.

"Should we sleep far apart again," she said with amusement a few moments later. "So we don't arouse the suspicion of, you know, if he wakes before us." She had jerked her thumb in the direction of fast-asleep Connor.

"Mmmm," Stephen said thoughtfully, running his hands down her back again. "Don't know if I can bear that, now."

Abby grinned at him again, and after giving him another kiss, slid down a bit so she lay right in the crook of his arm and closed her eyes. She smiled serenely, feeling him press a kiss to the top of her head.

"This whole sleeping arrangement ended up far better than I would have guessed," he whispered suddenly.

"Yeah, thank God for Connor's snores!" she said into his chest, and the two of them laughed as silently as they could.

Fin.