A/N: Just a fun little smut piece written during 4x07 - sometime after they get back from the prison, sometime before Connor makes his discovery. Part two is the smut, parts one and three are safe chatty bits.

Spoilers: A little bit of 4x07, certainly not the meat or plot of the episode.

Warning: Explicit sexual content. Not child or work friendly.

Summary: Until Philip Burton, Abby had been the focus of Connor Temple's existence. Burton had no right to come between them. Connor was hers, and it was time she staked her claim.

Disclaimer: I so obviously don't own Primeval; I just like to borrow the characters and mutate their inner voices. Please don't sue, my house is small, my car is useless and my dogs are pains in the arse, but they're all I have.

Off His Leash

By: Danae Bowen

Abby Maitland's eyes darkened as she overheard Connor's conversation with Burton. The lab is Prospero property and no one from the ARC need know what went on in there, even Abby. Her shoulders straightened angrily as she listened to Connor quietly acquiesce.

She sighed. Burton treated Connor like a dog to be ordered about, and that thought forced her teeth to snap together as her jaw tightened. Worse even was Connor following Burton like he was on a leash, unable to disobey his master's command.

Her heart beat heavily in her chest as her fingers flexed reflexively at her side. She'd been idle since they'd returned, busy trying to establish her place at this new ARC, trying to see how she and Connor fit into this now strange society to which they'd returned. She was so busy examining and thinking and comparing then to now, she was missing the in between. The fewer kisses she spared Connor, the more he bowed to Burton's praise. The less time she set aside for Connor, the more he spent in his Prospero lab, endearing himself to the mad scientist out to destroy all they worked for. It seemed to Abby that the more distant she became, the closer Connor grew to Philip Burton, and the less she seemed to matter.

It wasn't that she didn't care for Connor, quite the opposite - but all they'd had was each other for a year, there were more pressing matters to consider now that they were back. They still needed a flat - couldn't keep crashing at Jess's, eventually that'd get pretty uncomfortable. They needed to find a way to bring home Rex, although her little pet seemed quite pleased with himself in the menagerie. They needed to find their way back to more than just this place in time, they needed to find their way back to their lives.

As the door to the lab was closed, effectively cutting Connor out of her line of sight and hearing, Abby frowned. Philip Burton had no right to try and come between them, her own actions - or lack there of - aside, he was not worthy of Connor's worship. Those dark, sweet puppy dog eyes used to train on her with all the love and affection in the world; he asked for nothing and gave everything to her in return. Even when she hurt him, even when her actions could be considered nothing more than stringing him along, even when she was bitter and foul, he waited. Every angry reaction she had, she took out on him. Every imbalance in her life that unsettled her, she laid on him. Every insecurity, moment of stress, jealous tendency, or cruel thought that appeared, he bore it all and never complained. From the day she met him, Connor had wanted her, just her, no matter how hot and cold she blew, no matter how hard she tried to drive him away. In the beginning, when her eyes were turned to Stephen, Connor's eyes were on her - always unnoticed. In the middle, as their jobs were filled with further dangers and her life seemed constantly at risk, it was Connor's arms around her, always pulling her to safety - regardless of the cost. In the end, the weeks before they'd landed in the cretaceous and everything changed, they'd become something different. She'd kicked him to the curb, taking away his home and leaving him with nothing, never realizing the impact her choice of Jack over Connor had made. What she did notice was the spot in her heart that seemed impossible to fill - science fiction films and pizza aside, the emptiness of her flat, beyond her brat of a brother, weighed on her heavily.

Their short stay at the safe house had driven that point home. He held her as they danced and for the first time in forever she felt truly free - free from her past, free from the ARC, and free from what she felt she owed her brother. For just a few miniscule moments there had only been her and Connor, his fingers laced into hers, his eyes broadcasting his absolute adoration of her while he spun her around and around, their laughter echoing off the walls of the small cabin. That sense of freedom died quickly when she'd found him unconscious after the accident and she couldn't stop herself as her hand raised to his neck, cradling his flesh softly in her palm as her heart beat an erratic rhythm in her chest. It was that exact moment, as she pleaded with him to say something, his slow heartbeat below her fingertips her only comfort, that she knew whatever was between them was so much more than she'd given credit.

She grew angry with herself, and in turn Connor. Jack's mistakes were his own, but again Connor bore the blame she needed to lay somewhere, anywhere but on her baby brother. She'd not realized exactly how much Connor took upon himself when it came to Jack and she couldn't help herself when it all unfolded before her. She'd talked herself out of every potential moment there may have been for them in the past, but as she looked down at him, knowing everything he'd done for her no matter the cost to himself, she'd moved to him, lowering her lips to his, and finally losing herself in his kiss.

Even now, standing in the ARC, staring at the heavy metal door that separated her and Connor, she was forced to smile. She hadn't known then as their lips moved slowly against each other, opening doors in her heart that had long rusted closed, the passionate creature that existed inside his simple exterior. A wider smile crossed her face; she'd learned that fact long later in a dark, dirty den while his mouth moved over hers, consuming the cries he'd wrung from her throat.

No, Philip Burton had no right to be the recipient of Connor's pure adoration; even if she didn't deserve it right now, that part of Connor belonged to Abby. She sucked her lower lip into her mouth as she stared at that impermeable metal door, an idea so wicked it border lined cruel forming behind her blue eyes.

He'd taken the new turn in their relationship without complaint, accepting her need to put distance between them as they struggled to fit back in. Too accepting, as it turns out, for Abby's comfort.

It was time to remind him, at the end of the day, to whose call he came.

~~~TBC