Reluctant Roomies Pt. 3

by phoebenpiper

[Note: Contains spoilers for Series 4 Episode 4.]

[Note: I'm assuming that Jess & Abby had a conversation back at the ARC similar to the one in the awesome story "Reality Check" by The King's Soldier! You should totally check out her story!]

...

Jess could feel the tension as they drove back to her flat. She would've thought that Abby was upset with her for blowing the whistle, but the blonde girl had already talked to her, thanked her, in fact, for ratting her out to Lester. So clearly the hostility that was filling the car with angry silence had nothing to do with her.

And had all to do with Connor.

Jess didn't know what had transpired between Abby and Connor at work - they'd seemed happy enough this morning. But clearly something had happened.

And clearly Connor was the one owing an apology for he'd tried several times to start, but he never got past "Abby, I..." before Abby's look silenced him again.

Under ordinary circumstances Jess would've been doing her best to keep the tone light and their spirits up - having come from a broken home, Jess hated this sort of tension and usually tried her best to dissipate it, to put the focus elsewhere and bring the topic around to something cheerful that everyone could participate in.

But Jess was too wrapped up in her own thoughts for that. Work today had been a full-on reality check. She'd never watched a person die before. Of course, technically the first bite had only knocked the young girl out - her heart had probably continued to beat until after the creature dragged her under the bleachers and...

Jess shivered at the memory and all that it meant: the girl had died, and she hadn't stopped it. Jess felt the guilt descending on her again. If only she'd seen her sooner, if only she'd directed Matt & Becker there quicker, if only...

Sighing, Jess tried to calm herself down. Abby's comforting words came back to her again: six people had been in that building, and five of them had survived, thanks to her. Jess had done her job, and done it well, and they couldn't be expected to save everybody, yeah?

But still the responsibility of it all suddenly felt like a burden too heavy to bear. Sure, people had been killed on missions before. But not in front of her eyes. And not a young, innocent girl, probably no more than a few years younger than Jess herself.

Perhaps that was why this was so upsetting, Jess realized. She saw herself in that young girl, and if the girl could die, so could she. Coming face to face with one's own mortality was never an easy thing.

So why do it? Why not simply push all thoughts of mortality to the back of her mind? For tonight, anyway!

"I was thinking..." Jess's chipper voice suddenly sounding through the tense silence made everyone in the car jump, including herself. Taking a deep breath, she collected herself and continued, "Perhaps I could cook for us all tonight. I mean, take-out is all well and good, but I'm sure you've both been hungering for a real home-cooked meal. There's this fantastic recipe I saw on 'Something for the Weekend' that I've been dying to try, and I know it's not the weekend, but what d'you say?"

Jess decided to take their silence as a yes.

...

As Jess rinsed the final pan and set it on the rack to dry, she broached the topic of bedtime. "So, sleeping arrangements. I believe I was promised my own bed back tonight?" She smiled expectantly at Abby.

The blonde girl nodded, her voice strangely flat as she answered, "Of course. It's your home, you deserve to sleep in your own bed."

Jess saw a smile light up Connor's face for the first time all evening.

But that smile quickly faded as Abby continued, "Connor can sleep on the futon tonight."

"What?"

Connor's response sounded more like the yelp of a kicked puppy than an actual word, but Abby didn't seem to care. She stood and walked off to the spare room, shutting the door firmly behind her.

Something Jess had recently overheard Connor say suddenly came to mind: "Clearly you've not seen Abby in a bad mood." Now she understood exactly what he'd meant.

Grabbing the pile of blankets, she handed them to a stunned Connor, flashing him an apologetic smile. "Sorry. The futon is really uncomfortable - torture, some might say - so my apologies in advance."

He nodded absently. Clearly the comfort of the futon was the last thing on his mind right now.

...

"Abby?" Connor rapped softly on the spare room door. Several minutes passed as he waited, his ears craning to hear any noises from inside, before trying again. "Abby, please?"

The door suddenly flew open, causing him to jump back in surprise.

"What d'you want, Connor?" Abby's voice was flat, her hand on the doorframe, blocking his entry.

Connor instinctively gulped. "Can we talk?"

Abby merely shrugged, as if to say, "Aren't we talking now?"

Connor waited, expecting to be invited in, but no invitation was forthcoming. Finally, he asked, "Can't I...come in?"

"Why?"

Connor gulped nervously again. He couldn't remember the last time Abby had been so mad, and it shook him to his very foundation. He struggled to think of a reason why they shouldn't have this argument in the doorway, a reason Abby would buy.

"Jess will hear us?" Connor tentatively suggested.

The point seemed to hit home, for Abby stepped back and held the door open for him. As he stepped into the room, he heard the door being shut behind him. He turned to see Abby standing with her arms folded across her chest, her eyes cold.

Connor gulped again, trying to gather the courage to do this. "Abby, I'm sorry. I'm sorry you think I let you down."

"'Think'?" Abby spat the word back at him.

This wasn't going to be easy. "I'm sorry I let you down," he quickly corrected. "I'm sorry that you...felt abandoned."

"Oh yes, it all comes down to how I FEEL, doesn't it?" Abby asked bitterly. "And now's not a good time to be getting all emotional, yeah?"

Connor sighed in frustration as he heard his words repeated back to him. "That's not what I meant. You know how much I care about Rex. But what was I supposed to do, Abby? There was an anomaly. I had to go. It's my job."

"There was an anomaly at the theatre, but somehow you managed to get out of that."

"Abby, that's not fair. You know Phillip asked..."

"Oh yes, it ALL comes down to Phillip. He says 'jump' and you ask 'how high?' But when I need you, when REX needs you...!" Abby ended her sentence with an angry sigh and a shake of her head.

"Phillip is my boss. OUR boss, Abby. I can't just-"

"Tell him no? Tell him killing all the animals is a bad idea? No, you're right, he's our boss, so we should merely stand aside and let him slaughter everything I've worked for!"

"Abby, you said it yourself - we don't really have the proper facilities to take care of all the animals. And Phillip had a good point - how many of them will we actually get home?"

"Oh right, they're an INCONVENIENCE, so why not kill them all?"

"Abby-"

"Don't you see, Connor? Those animals are US! They're stranded, millions of years from home, ALONE! Can't you see how scared and lonely they must be? Maybe Phillip can't imagine what that's like, but we've been there, Connor. For an entire YEAR! We were stranded outside of our time, and for what? Why did we struggle to stay alive, to get back here? You said it yourself, we fought to get back so we could continue Cutter's work. Yet you know as well as I do that Cutter never would've sanctioned killing all the animals, nor Danny! Hell, even LESTER didn't want that to happen. And neither did you. Until now. Until Phillip."

The venom in her final words still hung in the silence that followed. Her hatred of Phillip was crystal clear, and much as it upset Connor to see Abby so hurt, it also upset him to hear her say such things about Phillip Burton, a bonafide science god.

"Phillip isn't the enemy," Connor stated quietly but firmly.

Abby let out a laugh. "Well, you sure as hell could've fooled me."

"He's our BOSS, Abby. Like it or not."

"Yeah, it's clear which side of that 'or' you fall on. 'Phillip's so perfect.' 'Phillip rocks.' Phillip tried to kill Rex, Connor. Phillip is not the saint you make him out to be."

Anger was slowly growing in Connor. True, Phillip wasn't perfect, but he'd probably never wasted much time considering the animals. His idea to kill them had been rash, no doubt, but upon reflection, he'd changed his mind to a more humane approach. Yet Abby was acting like he was still some dinosaur killer, and Connor wasn't going to let Abby continue to slander him so.

"And Phillip is not the devil you make him out to be, Abby. He changed his mind."

"Yeah, no thanks to you."

"He's a brilliant man, Abby. He realized that there were better options. But I don't blame him for considering it."

Abby started to protest, but Connor quickly continued.

"I mean, think about it, Abby. Phillip had a point. And unlike us, he has the purse-strings to consider. He probably doesn't want to get stuck throwing millions of pounds down the drain, and for what? To save some predators that might get loose and kill again?"

"Rex wouldn't kill anyone! Nor Sid and Nancy!"

"But the mammoth could. It DID, in fact, or don't you remember the carnage on the motorway? And those things we were fighting today, Abby - they killed a girl. An innocent young girl! And they almost killed Becker!"

"So what are you saying? We should just kill anything that's dangerous? Then why not kill all the pit bulls, too? They've been known to kill. Hell, while we're at it, let's go on safari to Africa and kill all the lions and leopards and hyenas - don't want them around to hurt anyone!"

Connor shook his head. "Now you're just being ridiculous."

"Oh! First I'm emotional, and now I'm ridiculous! It's good to see your misogynistic side finally rearing it's ugly head!"

"What?"

"Just go hang out with your mate Phillip, Connor. The two of you can go save the world together without being slowed down by us stupid, emotional girls."

Connor felt as if he'd been punched in the stomach. He'd never thought of Abby as being any less because she was female. He fully admitted she'd always been a better fighter than him and certainly a better shot. And they'd both saved each other's lives more times than he could remember. He'd always viewed them as equals, as partners. Especially after the year they'd just spent together. So to have her accuse him of such now was more than he could bear.

Stunned and hurt, Connor quietly turned and walked out of the room. He heard the door slam behind him, followed by Abby dissolving to tears behind the closed door, but his brain barely registered it. Feeling numb and lost, he fumbled his way back to the futon in the dark.

...

Abby felt like she'd been running forever. Her lungs ached, and her legs felt like jelly. But she couldn't stop - not now.

"Connor!"

She called his name for what felt like the zillionth time, but there was still no answer. She hoped that meant he was merely out of hearing range and not the more grisly alternative. She scolded herself for getting them into this situation, but now wasn't the time for placing blame. Now was the time for running.

Abby ducked, narrowly avoiding a tree branch. Unfortunately the motion upset her balance, so when her foot stumbled upon an exposed root, she went sprawling onto the ground. Her splayed hands, meant to catch her fall, were suddenly pierced by dozens of pine needles, and her ankle now throbbed, having wrenched it when she'd fallen, but she knew she couldn't give in to the pain - she had to keep going.

As she stumbled to her feet, she heard a rattling noise behind her and realized it was too late. Despite the futility of it, she tried once again to run, but she instantly felt the raptor's claws digging into her back as it leapt upon her, and suddenly she was falling...falling...

Abby awoke with a start, her heart racing and her breath ragged. It took her a moment to realize that she was not being devoured by a raptor nor sleeping on the cold, hard ground, a crinkly survival blanket wrapped about her - instead she was safely lying in a comfortable bed, snuggled under a toasty duvet to keep warm. She let out a relieved sigh, glad the nightmare was over. Closing her eyes, she instinctively attempted to nestle closer to Connor. When she didn't feel his warm chest against her back nor his arms wrapping around her, she drowsily reached behind her, seeking him out. But her roving hand didn't find him - instead it merely found empty, cold sheets and a still-damp pillow.

It was the dampness that brought Abby to a full state of awareness. She now remembered that she'd gone to bed alone, bitterly crying herself to sleep. She and Connor may no longer be in the Cretaceous, but they weren't quite out of the woods just yet.

She was suddenly wide awake as the memories of yesterday came flooding back in the darkness. The sense of panic that had first overcome her when she'd feared Rex was to be killed threatened to engulf her once again, and she struggled to stay calm. The animals weren't to be exterminated, Abby reminded herself - Lester had seen to that. She found it somewhat hard to believe that the caustic bureaucrat in his pretentious striped suit had been her knight in shining armour, but for once he'd really come through for her.

And Connor hadn't.

Though Abby realized now that that assessment wasn't completely fair. Connor hadn't left her simply to gad about with his mates - he'd gone off to do his job, THEIR job, saving lives. Yet she still couldn't help feeling somewhat abandoned by him. Rex's very life had been in danger, yet Connor hadn't made any sort of effort to stay with her, let alone speak up in Rex's defense. Instead he'd gone, leaving her behind to try to save all the animals by herself, a task that she could now admit to herself would've been impossible to accomplish alone. Thank goodness Lester had come along when he had, or it was likely she might've been hurt.

And while the immediate danger for the animals was now over, she couldn't help but feel a strange sense of foreboding. Although Phillip had changed his mind, she got the feeling that he hadn't had a true change of heart. He clearly didn't like the animals, Rex in particular, and Abby sensed he wasn't too keen on her either, though that feeling was definitely mutual.

Phillip was, from everything that Abby had seen so far, a proud man, but it wasn't merely a simple arrogance but a true sinful pride. It was clear that his pride had been injured by the recent scan fiasco, which is no doubt what had caused him to lash out heedlessly against Rex. Abby somehow guessed that this wasn't the first time he'd done such a thing, nor would it be the last.

And who would he lash out at next time? Her? Lester? The entire Anomaly Research Centre? Phillip Burton was a powerful man, and she knew exactly what horrors he was capable of, so she naturally feared what he might do.

Yet Connor seemed to trust him implicitly. He'd always been too gullible for his own good - his fault came from wanting to see the best in people, especially those he respected and admired. He'd even tried to see the best in Helen, for he couldn't believe that Cutter would've married a bad person. But Connor had eventually realized the truth about Helen, had seen her for the monster she truly was.

Abby just hoped he was able to see the truth about Phillip. Before it was too late.

...