Gravity

Chapter One: Distraction Techniques

Abby pushed her bangs out of her face, irritatedly tucking the stray hairs behind her ear again. It didn't stay out of her eyes for long, quickly falling back into place. Her irritation was not helped in the least by a certain team member currently prattling non stop about something or other. Generally, she was amused by Cononr Temple. He was a boy still, despite being older than her, and she tried to be gentle with his attempts at flirting. Still, she liked him well enough. They were friends, mates. That did not stop his unceasing babbling from annoying her, especially in the humidity and heat of the small space they were currently making their way through.

Cutter was in front of her, Connor directly behind, whilst Stephen brought up the rear, making sure their bumbling geek didn't get himself eaten by his own distractability. Well, that may have been a little unfair,but it was sort of true. He did have a tendency to end up dinosaur-bait in some way or other. A lot.

"Connor, shut up!"

He immediately stopped talking, and she could easily imagine the hurt look in his doe-like eyes, looking a lot more like a kicked puppy than anyone his age had a right to look.

"Sorry. I was going on a bit, yeah?" His voice was quieter, and she wondered why that was. SHe didn't think it was her snappign at him - he usually recovered from that rather quickly. She shook her head a little and carried on, making her way on hands and knees, trying not to bump into Cutter in front of her,

"Oof! Connor, what're you doing? You idiot, move!" Steven sounded a lot more irritated than she had, if that was possible. "C'mon, what's the holdup Temple?"

"What's wrong back there, Steven?" Cutter called over his shoulder, stopping. Abby noticed in time and wriggled around until she could half-turn and look at Connor. The narrow tunnel was dim, but even in the litttle light they had, she could tell he was pale. And apparently frozen to the spot. He took a shuddering breath and swallowed almost audibly.

"Connor's not moving." Steven said, sounding rather put-upon. Abby hid her grin, focusing on Connor. He looked like he was ready to bolt, if there'd been enough room to do so.

"Sorry." His voice was even quieter than before. "Erm... just a little..." He swallowed again and look at Abby for a second, shaking his head. "I don't like small places like this."

"He's claustrophobic, he means." Cutter's voice floated back to them. Connor's squeak of protest didn't do much for her impression of him.

"You were fine before, Connor." She pointed out, trying to ignore the stifling heat for a few moments. This was not something they could just pretend was a simple irritation - it wasn't simply that he was afraid of the tunnel, it was a real phobia. Which meant they had to deal with it right then and there. The anomaly was supposedly at the end of this tunnel, in a larger underground space near the Tube. The other acccess point had been blocked by debris apparently kicked up by a creature. The worker who'd seen the strange light had run screaming about a gigantic bear-dog-thing, and both he and the creature had caused things to fall and cover the other exit. Which was in a way a good thing, as it meant the creature couldn't get out, either.

"I... I was distracting myself." His voice sounded strained and she tried to see him more clearly in the darkness.

"That's why you wouldn't shut up?"

"Mhm." Connor mumbled.

"Sorry Connor, I shouldn't have yelled and broken you from your concentration."

"You didn't know." He said shortly. Steven was physically stopping Connor from trying to back up down the tunnel in his panic. She racked her brains, and turned to look at Cutter.

"Erm, Connor, what are your theories on the type of creature that came through this Anomaly?" Cutter asked, sparing Abby from racking her brains for a topic.

"Huh? Er, well... Mesonyx, maybe? It's not actually a wolf or a bear, but at a short glance it's suppsoed ot look like one..." The paleontology student said hesitantly.

"That's a possibility. But I was thinking more along the lines of Hemicyon. It was more doglike than bearlike, but based on the witness' description it seems likely that that was the case." Cutter suggested. Connor blinked, frowning slightly, mulling it over. She hid the smile - there were moments like this where he was serious and actually used his brilliant mind.

"What about Amphyicon? That fits better then Hemicyon, righ' Professor? The overall size and proportions, as well as projected habits..." Soon enough Connor and Cutter were lost in prehistoric zoological babble, distracting Connor from his claustrophobia, and they were on the move again. Abby was impressed - he had been determined not to loose himself in his panic. And she was even more impressed when Connor used a leftover sheet of scrap metal as a shiel to protect himself, and Abby, from the Amphyicon's rending claws succesfully.

About a half hour later, though, having succesully put the Amphyicon back through the anomaly and with SF's to guard it until it sealed it self, and they were safe and sound on the drive back to the ARC, and Connor was back to his terrible flirting attempts that just made her irritated with him again, and babbling about some comic or other. Apparently there'd been an illustration that looked like an Ampycion in it and he was geeking out over it. She rolled her eyes and wiped her sweaty hair away from her face. This was not how she'd planned on spending the day.

A/N: Basically, these will be several one-shot peeks into moments in seasons 1 through 5 of connor and abby's growing relationship throughout the 5 series. (oh gosh, trying to pluralize te word 'series' is impossible xD)