Whenever he had a bad day Connor would tell himself he'd been through worse. This was the one exception. Today's monster had terrified him in front of the team and oozed gunge on him. Danny couldn't help but laugh having discovered Connor's fear of monsters finally mixed with his childish zombie phobia, Sarah remembered how he'd had once mentioned it to her after the insect incident but still giggled and even Becker made a mental note of it. Worst of all Abby found out. He was moving back into her flat today now that Jack had decided to leave. Despite having a shower then hurriedly mopping up his gunky footprints he still stank of zombie. Connor felt humiliated – and paranoid.
He and Abby had dinner together in an awkward silence.
"Connor this is stupid."
"Hmm?"
"Being scared of zombies. After all we've been through."
But now we know it's possible don't we!
"Hmm." Connor repeated unable to say anything else without spitting food in her face. He swallowed his mouthful and then spoke. "The only thing that even comes close to being that scary was nearly being frozen to death though." He admitted.
"What? When was that?" asked Abby in surprise.
"When we dealt with that fungus creature I got trapped in the room with some of the remaining fungi. My only hope was to get the temperature as low as possible." he said simply.
Abby remembered coming back to the ARC to discover her plants destroyed. Now she realised that must've been the room Connor was trapped in. However she also remembered angrily asking some nearby ARC employees who was responsible for the death of them. She yelled so hard at Connor that night.
"Why didn't you tell me that before?" Abby asked guiltily.
"It's not a very nice experience to relive." Connor replied shuddering at the memory of it.
She recalled how he'd seemed super jittery and far paler than normal as she'd told him off.
"Why did you go in the room in the first place Connor?"
"Sid had escaped. He managed to get into the room through the ventilation shafts."
Abby remembered Connor's excuse of it being 'cleaning day' at his mate's flat.
"Who were you staying with then?" she asked.
"Just a mate." Connor lied.
Abby wasn't convinced.
"Did you stay with Duncan?" she quizzed.
"Ha! No, Duncan hasn't talked to me since – well you know."
Abby tried to think of other friends Connor had besides Tom and Duncan but none came to mind.
"Connor, tell me honestly, were you staying with anyone at that time?" she said, narrowing her eyes.
"Well – sort of." He spluttered.
"Connor?"
"Does the ARC count as a person?"
"Connor!"
"I'll take that as a no."
"Connor?"
"WHAT?" he snapped.
Abby wondered if she'd probed too far yet continued all the same.
"Do you have any friends outside the ARC?"
"There's the nice lady at Starbucks – " Connor wilted under Abby's glare. " – no. When did you last have a night out with friends?"
Abby bit her lip, he was right. It had been a long time. Then she realised something.
"I'm with a friend now." She smiled.
Connor grinned. He wanted to become so much more than that but every relationship had to start somewhere.