He was in huge trouble this time, and he knew it. Connor had unplugged the ADD as a precaution while doing some electrical work to it, and forgotten to plug it in again afterwards. It'd sat unplugged for nearly 24 hours and they'd missed two anomaly alerts. Creatures had come through one of them and spread throughout a park and many people had gotten more than a glimpse at the strange plant-eating giants. It'd taken forever to round them back up. It was fortunate that no one was hurt, but the damage was extensive and the cover story took forever.
So naturally Connor was amazed that he hadn't been called into Lester's office for a lecture at the least yet. He'd spent most the morning dreading being summoned there, but nothing seemed to be happening. He figured Lester was just caught up with the cover story, but by the time 2:00 rolled around he had begun to wonder if Lester wasn't just cooking up some extra huge punishment for him. He trudged to the staff room to grab a cup of coffee, his mind wandering through all the possible upcoming scenarios.
"I'm telling you," he vaguely overheard Stephen saying to Nick as he entered the room. "I've never seen that girl cry before. I mean, I know Lester can be a bit harsh but to have Abby in tears?! I couldn't believe it."
Connor froze in his tracks and whirled around, "What happened?! Where's Abby? Why is she crying?"
"Apparently she felt bad about the detector being unplugged. She went up to confess to Lester that she'd unplugged it to charge her mobile. Figured she'd just plug the mobile in for 10 minutes, enough to make one call to her brother, and then plug it back in. She took the mobile back and forgot."
"What?" Connor stared, stunned. Had he actually plugged it back in then? It was Abby's fault?
"Yeah, Lester screamed at her for over an hour. Stuff about how she could have cost people their lives. Maybe still would if we missed any of the creatures as who knew how long they were out there, all that sort of stuff. He threatened to fire her but in the end he sent her home on a week's suspension."
Connor didn't reply as he turned tail and ran back to the ADD to check the power history. He knew he'd be able to tell if he'd plugged it back in and it'd been unplugged again after that.
"Abby?" Connor asked as he opened the front door. She didn't respond, but he found her quickly enough, wrapped in a blanket on the sofa and looking somewhat miserable. The TV was on, but her eyes had a faraway look, as though she wasn't really paying attention.
Connor moved to sit next to her. "Abby, why'd you cover for me?"
She glanced at him. "Figured he'd go easier on me than you, I guess. Seeing as how you mess up a lot more. Wasn't counting on him having had no sleep because of the cover story. Man, Connor, I've never seen Lester so mad. The way he was yelling almost took me back to my childhood. Still, no harm done, yeah?"
"No harm done?! Abby! You were suspended! Nick said you were crying!"
Abby frowned, "Nick shouldn't be telling people that! I don't want everyone to know!"
Connor put an arm around her shoulder, tentatively. "Abs, come on, we'll go back to the ARC and I'll tell Lester it was me, okay?"
She shook her head. "No, Con, thanks, but I've already been yelled at, why should you get yelled at too? It'd just make me covering for you a waste, wouldn't it? Besides, it's fine. I used to cover for Jack all the time too, I'm used to it."
"It's not fine, you cried." Connor ignored the warning glance Abby shot him, "I don't want you to cover for me. I'm old enough to be responsible for my mistakes." Abby's expression faltered and Connor went on before she could get the wrong idea. "I appreciate that you covered for me, really, but Abby I don't want you to get hurt for something I've done wrong. I lo-" Connor stopped mid-word, his face turning bright red and he felt Abby stiffened in his arm.
"I-I," he stuttered a few times, desperately searching for something else to say rather than the actual sentence he was about to blurt out. "I just don't want people to hurt you. And you shouldn't be used to it," He finished, rather lamely from his view point.
With a small amount of amazement, Connor noticed that Abby hadn't pushed his arm away when he had been about to say the "L" word. Instead, she now relaxed back into his touch and leaned her head against his shoulder. For a while they sat in silence.
"Let's go to the fair, my treat." Connor announced suddenly and was on his feet instantly.
Abby looked at him surprised, "Why?"
"Because you've wanted to go there since its opened, and I want you to have some fun after you landed in trouble for me." He offered her his hand, to help her get up from the sofa. "It's the least I can do."
Abby took his offered hand and stood, her eyes meeting his. For a moment they both stayed silently still, reading in each other's eyes all the unspoken things that neither of them were brave enough to voice out loud. They confirmed with each other that they were okay. Abby read the words that Connor had stopped saying mid-word and Connor read that it was for this same reason that she'd protected him to begin with. Their silent conversation ended quickly as Abby ducked her head and they lost eye contact. She pulled her hand from his and then nodded, "In that case, I'd love to go! Aren't you supposed to be at work though?"
Connor shrugged, "I left as soon as I found out what happened. If Lester thinks he can treat you like that and keep me there still, he's badly mistaken."
"It was my fault that he thought I'd unplugged it."
"I don't care! He could've suspended you without that much yelling at least. If he made you cry then he obviously took it too far."
"I do wish you'd stop bringing that up. I'm not exactly proud of my little breakdown, Con."
"Sorry," he apologized, giving her a quick hug. "I just don't like it, is all."
"I'm fine, Con, really. I'm tough. Just because I cried doesn't mean you have to worry about me. But I do want to forget about it, so can we just drop the subject and go now?"
Connor laughed, "Yep, just let me get my wallet."
He dashed up the stairs to grab it with a grin on his face.
