Okay, let's start off with the disclaimer. Primeval belongs to someone that isn't me. There. Done. Now, the pairing is Abby/Connor, the rating is currently T but may go up, depending on how I feel about it, and I would love it if everyone that reads this would click one of the buttons at the bottom of the page! Enjoy!
Abby smiled as she opened the letter from Jack only to discover a note asking for money instead of anything to do with her birthday. Her smile fell and she was officially depressed. She collapsed onto the couch and let a sob out into a pillow. Connor froze on his way to his room when he saw this. "Abs? Anything wrong?"
"My own brother forgot my birthday," she mumbled, pulling the pillow down so she could look at him but still hide her nose and mouth.
Connor gave her a sympathetic smile and said, "How 'bout I make my famous spaghetti and we go get whatever movie you want?"
She smiled again and held her hands for him to pull her up. He grinned brightly as he did so. "I'll go get the movie. You go get what you need for that fantastic spaghetti."
Connor nodded and waited until she was gone to pick up the phone. "Hello, Baylor's Bakery? Yes, I need to place an order for one of your ice cream cakes. The Oreo cream, please. No, I need it tonight. Yes, I know it's last minute. Over booked, huh?"
He grinned devilishly and walked over to his laptop. "Do you do everything by computer, sir? No, no, just curious. Can you just check and see if you have anything in stock?
He hung up and began to work on his computer, hacking into the bakery's system. A second later, the man's "No, we don't. I'm sorry,"-s turned into "Hey, look at that! There's one in stock! I'm so sorry for saying there wasn't! Must've been a computer glitch. When do you need it delivered?"
"Can you have it here in an hour or should I just pick it up?" Connor asked with a smug grin. He escaped the program and stood up, walking over to the kitchen to start dinner. He hung up when the man agreed to deliver it in an hour, still grinning smugly. He was too good sometimes.
Abby smiled as she drove back home from the video store, happy Connor was being so wonderful to her. She had woken up to a tray of breakfast on her bed beside her along with a single blue rose in a small vase on her bedside table, a clean flat, and he gave her a kiss on the cheek when he told her happy birthday. Every single time he told her happy birthday. (Seven times, to her pleasure.) He made her a fantastic lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup, gave her a big hug when she got depressed about the only person sending her anything was her old boss at the zoo, and he apologized profusely when his friend called and said he couldn't bring the gift Connor had gone to tons of trouble to get until tomorrow. She forgave him easily. And now he was letting her pick the movie even though it wasn't her turn, making the spaghetti she liked so much, and if she acted really depressed, he might embrace her really tightly.
She arrived at the flat and was immediately ambushed and blinded. Connor grinned as he held his hands over her eyes. "Connor, what're you doing?" she asked nervously. "You know I can't see, right?"
"Yeah, that's the point. Now trust me, will you? It's your birthday surprise. I've been working on it all day so you have to play along," he told her happily. He turned her around to face him and removed his hands. "Look straight at me."
"Okay," she agreed hesitantly. He gently put a sleeping mask over her head to cover her eyes and turned her around. "Connor, is this really necessary?"
"Yes." He led her into the dining area where he had hung a Happy Birthday banner, tied lots of balloons around the room, and set the table. "Okay. You can take it off now."
She slid the mask up and gasped. "Happy birthday!" everyone cried. Sarah rushed forward to hug Abby. Danny clapped Connor on the back when Abby stood there looking shocked and pleased. Sarah released her, giggling slightly, and Abby's face split into a smile. "Connor!"
He chuckled as she threw her arms around him and smiled happily. She pressed a kiss to his cheek, just close enough to the corner of his mouth to indulge herself, and said, "This was so sweet of you."
"I'm glad you like it but I can't take all the credit, you know. Sarah helped with the decorations." Sarah smacked his shoulder and hugged Abby again.
"Well, happy birthday. Now, open gifts and blow out the candles so we can leave you to your dinner." Abby opened the gifts they had gotten her excitedly. A new shirt she'd been wanting for months, a gift certificate to a high-end clothing store from Danny, and a certificate to a gym equipment shop from Becker. She hugged them all and kissed Becker's cheek, causing Connor's jaw to clinch in jealously, because he remember she needed a new punching bag, something she'd only mentioned in passing really. She blew out the candles then everyone but Connor left cheerfully.
"So, um, I'm not really sure about this card but it's best you open it anyway." Connor handed Abby Lester's card and she hesitated before opening it. Inside was a check for a large sum of money and a small handwritten note saying thank you for taking Connor off Lester's hands and happy birthday. Connor made a face when he read the thank you but smiled softly to himself. "So, uh, what'd you wish for?"
He set her plate of spaghetti in front of her and put the cake in the icebox to wait until they were done before sitting down. She shook her head. "I can't say. Bad luck and all that. This is really good. Do something new?"
"No. Abby, c'mon. Tell me," Connor whined.
"Fine. I wished that all my birthdays were this good. I wondered why you were being so wonderful." He grinned and she smiled softly. "So, does this mean the gift you got me is actually here too?"
He grinned even more and jumped up. He came back with a small box in hand. "Tada! I should be in films."
She laughed at him and took the bright yellow box with a blue ribbon covered in red spots decorating it. It looked ridicules and was wrapped pretty poorly. So very Connor of him. She untied the ribbon, wrapped it around his neck, and tied it loosely. "Leave it," she ordered when he started to remove it. He chuckled and nodded. She removed the wrapping paper and opened the white box inside. She gasped when she saw what was inside. A new CD from her favorite band that wasn't even out yet. "How on earth did you get this?"
"I called in some favors, did a little illegal hacking, and some shameless begging," he said happily. "You like it then? There's more though, ya know. Look in the box again."
She looked at him with wide eyes, curious. "How could anything be better than this?" Then she spotted them. Tickets and backstage passes to the hottest concert of the year where her favorite band was going to be playing along with several other bands she liked. The tickets had been sold out the first week of sales though. She had waited hours with Connor in line to get them only to find they were sold out. "How did you get these?"
"You really don't want to know," he replied with a grin. "Well? Do I get a hug?"
"Yes!" She threw her arms around his neck and he practically beamed as he held her. Then she pulled back and pressed her lips firmly to his. When she pulled back, he had a dazed but pleased look on his face. He cleared his throat several times and shook his head like a wet dog before snapping out of it and pulling out her chair for her to sit back down. She smiled brightly and looked at the tickets excitedly. "This is the best birthday ever, Connor. Thank you so much."
"My pleasure, Abs. So, gonna go shopping tomorrow to get something smashing for the concert, are you?" He dug into his spaghetti while he listened to her talk excitedly about what she was going to have to do in preparation for the party. When she suddenly added what he was going to have to do to the conversation, he nearly choked on a piece of meatball. "What? Me? Who said I was going?"
She froze and stared at him. "What? You got two tickets, didn't you? Don't you want to go?"
"Don't you want to take someone better?" he countered.
Her eyes narrowed into a glare. "You don't want to go, do you?"
"I didn't say that." Connor looked down at his plate nervously and mentally cursed himself for sticking his foot into his mouth.
Abby sighed heavily and said, "Fine. I'll ask Becker to go. At least he'll be clear about what he wants."
"C'mon, Abby. I didn't mean to upset you. I just didn't think you'd want me to go with you. I figured you'd take a friend." He smacked his forehead when she gave him that 'I-can't-believe-you-just-said-that' look. "Wait, that was wrong." She got up, threw down her napkin, and stalked away towards her room. "Abby!"
"So, we're not friends, is that it?" Abby asked, angry and a little hurt. She rounded on him when he got closer and he tried to speak but she cut him off. "I guess since you can't have me as a girlfriend, we can't be friends, huh?" He looked hurt but she kept going. "That's fine! I don't want to be your friend then!"
She stormed to her room and he banged his head against the wall angrily. Then he turned and slid down the wall until he was on the ground. "Idiot," he muttered. "I'm such a bloody idiot."
Abby lied on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Okay, so, maybe she overreacted but she was so sick of him being so damn complicated. And the only reason she brought up him wanting to date her was to get him to express his feelings. Then they wouldn't just be mates, she was sure of that. They'd finally be lovers. Suddenly, to her surprise, Connor knocked on the door. "What?" she snapped, pretending to still be angry. She was the one would should have been in film.
"Uh, Abby? I'm really sorry I said the wrong thing but I didn't mean it that way. I meant that I thought you'd take a different, closer friend. I mean, I'm not your closest friend, right? You've probably got tons of friends and you'd probably prefer one of them over me any day." He rested his forehead on the door and said, "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to upset you. I just…Well, you know me, Abs. I'm terrible at talking to people properly."
"Yes, you are," she agreed as she got up and walked to the door, mentally cursing herself for not getting him to admit his feelings like she wanted. She opened the door and he backed up respectfully. "And you're also going to that concert with me. You're going to dance with me, hold me tightly during the slower songs, and, if we see any of my mates, you're going to kiss somewhere on my body and pretend to be my boyfriend so they don't think I was lying when I told most of them I was no longer a single loser that hadn't had sex in a year, got it? You're going to do all that because it's my birthday present and because you love me. Then, when we come home, we're going to lie on my bed and talk for hours until one of us falls asleep."
"Okay," he agreed nervously. "Am I forgiven then?" Connor gave her a hopeful smile and she hesitated teasingly before nodding. His handsome face split into a grin and he hugged her tightly, lifting her right off the ground. "Thank you, Abby!"
"I can't really breath when you do that, you know?" She grabbed his hand, brought it to her lips, and said, "You had better not screw up tomorrow, Connor Temple, because if you do, I'll make you do shameful things to make it up to me," before she kissed his knuckles and dragged him to the kitchen for cake.
"What kind of shameful things?" he asked nervously. She shrugged and winked at him. He gulped nervously. "What kind of things, Abby? Abby? Abby! Tell me!" She just laughed as she went to get the cake from the icebox.
Here ends the first, short chapter. Next one should be up soon. Thanks for reading! Sorry it was so crummy!