Title: Darkness - Chapter 4

Characters/Pairing: Connor/Abby - ish, Danny

Genres: Angst, hurt/comfort

Disclaimer: Primeval and its characters belong to Impossible Picture. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Here is the next chapter - finally! This is quite a short one with an extra helping of angst and there will be one more after this. The good news is that the next chapter is finished and ready so its just a case of me posting it. Thanks so much to Alyse for the beta.

The journey home was uncomfortably silent. Abby had tried to make small talk at first, but soon gave up when all Connor would give were monosyllabic replies. He'd always been a quiet traveller - that much he could definitely remember. He cleared his throat as he noticed Abby glance across at him and smile for what felt like the tenth time in so many minutes.

"Shouldn't you be watching the road or something?" he asked.

She turned away and Connor thought he could see moisture build up in her eyes.

"You know, there was a time when you would've . . . never mind."

He was going to ask what she was going to say, but then thought better of it and turned to look out of the window at the passing scenery. Now and again they would pass a building that he thought might be familiar somehow, but then he would brush it off as wishful thinking. He let his mind wander; there were so many things that Connor didn't understand. People kept telling him that they were his friends - lots of people - But Connor wasn't a people person; he didn't have friends. Not many anyway. There were just the two - his best friends - Tom and Duncan. The three of them were always together. They shared a lot of the same classes at Uni and a lot of the same interests. Friday night was movie night and they'd rent some sci-fi films and order pizza. That was the life of Connor Temple. Not dinosaur hunting and travelling through rips in time. What Abby had been telling him sounded more ridiculous than some of the movies he'd seen.

"Right, we're here," Abby said, startling him from his reverie.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and he followed suit, both exiting the car. He had a good look around the quiet little street; it was amazing really that they were only fifteen minutes from the centre of London. A huge block of rather swanky looking flats stretched out along the whole length of the road. They looked to have been converted from an old warehouse. Connor found himself wondering how on earth he'd managed to get such an amazing place to live. The last he remembered, he was living in the dingy halls of residence at the University. He guessed that they must be paying them danger money if they really did what Abby said they did. Abby grabbed his things from the boot of her mini and made her way over to one of the doors on the ground floor. Connor followed on behind her, taking his bag as she rooted around for her keys.

"Well, here we are then, home," Abby said.

Connor stepped inside and looked the place over. "Home," he repeated, as though trying the word out for the first time.

"I must warn you, there'll be two little . . . oops, too late."

The sound of scrabbling feet could be heard and too very strange looking creatures rounded the corner, their claws slipping on the wooden floor. They practically leapt at Connor and he wasn't sure whether to be amazed by the fact that supposed extinct animals were actually here, in their home, or whether to be freaked out by the fact that they were currently slobbering all over him.

"Diictodons? We really have Diictodons as pets? I thought you were kidding."

"It's not exactly the kind of thing people kid about is it, Connor?"

"Probably not, no. What do they want?" he asked, backing away from them as they tugged at his trousers.

"They just want you to fuss them for a bit that's all. They've missed you."

Abby flashed him a beautiful smile that Connor couldn't help but return. She was a beautiful woman and heaven knew why she was friends with him. Girls wouldn't even talk to him usually unless it was to tell him to bugger off; now suddenly, he had two friends that were, in his opinion, smart, fine looking women. There was something about Abby though that made his heart flutter in his chest. The feeling had freaked him out at first; especially coupled with all the dreams he'd been having about this supposed stranger. Now though, he just desperately wanted to remember who she was to him and why she seemed to feel special. Connor looked back down to the Diictodons who were now squabbling for his affections. He reached down tentatively and gave them a little stroke on the head. They had nasty looking teeth and he was afraid of getting on the wrong side of them but they seemed friendly enough.

"Do they bite?" he asked.

"Not people, just furniture - amongst other things."

Abby disappeared into the kitchen and the Diictodons seemed to hear something Connor didn't. They left him alone and ran off after Abby. He was startled by a chirruping noise and looked up to see a green lizard swooping down from the rafters.

"You must be Rex," Connor said to the creature as it landed on a nearby chair.

The little lizard tilted its head from side to side and chirped at Connor before taking off again and flying into the kitchen.

"Dinner time guys," Connor heard Abby say from the other room, followed by the excited squeaks and squeals of their enthusiastic pets.

As he waited for Abby to return, Connor walked around the flat. He came to a cabinet littered with photos in frames. There was one of Abby holding the flying lizard and one of him playing a game of tug-of-war with the Diictodons. This must truly be his home. There was also a group photo; him and Abby standing with two other men. He hadn't seen the men around while he'd been in the hospital and wondered if it was the two who Abby said had died. The rest of the photos were all of him and Abby in various different places. Connor found something odd about the pictures; if he hadn't known better, he'd have said they were a married couple, or just a couple at least. Nothing Abby had said however, suggested that to be the case. All she said was that they were friends; was she hiding something from him? Connor was brought from his thoughts when he heard footsteps behind him and he turned to see Abby smiling brightly at him.

"They won't bother you for a bit now," she said, indicating to the animals in the other room. "Looking at the pictures are you? Anything ring any bells?"

He shook his head and turned back to the photos, focussing on one in particular. He had a black suit on and Abby was wearing a beautiful silky black dress that clung to her curves. They were standing arm in arm and both sporting cheesy grins.

"What was this one?" he asked, holding it out to her.

Abby reached out and took it from him, smiling sadly as she inspected the picture. "Ah, that was one of Lester's snobbish benefits. He needed to take someone who could spout out all the technical jargon about what we do at the ARC, so he chose us. I think that's actually one of the few times you've looked smart"

"We went . . . together?"

"Yes, Connor, of course we went together. There wouldn't have been much point in us going separately would there?"

"No, I mean, did we go together?"

"Connor, I don't know what you're . . . oh! You mean together. Right, erm, no, we weren't together in that way."

Connor felt the disappointment creep in. He was also rather confused though. There were so many signs; body language for one. In every picture where they were together, they were really close. Maybe he was just imagining it because he'd never been that close to a woman before. But even in the hospital, she'd visited him every day and talked to him about anything and everything. She'd even held his hand sometimes which was a kind of intimacy he really wasn't used to.

"Oh, right, of course not, silly me. I was just checking, you know, just in case." He knew he was babbling, but he was trying desperately to cover his embarrassment. If the amused expression on Abby's face was anything to go by though, he was failing miserably.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" she asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah, please."

Abby made her way back to the kitchen and Connor made his way to the sofa, plonking himself down and removing his jacket. He felt strange - out of place. There was a certain familiarity about the place but it certainly didn't feel like home. There was also that tiny little niggle in the back of his mind that told him this wasn't real. That these people were lying. They were actors, maybe, who had been paid by the government to fool him into thinking he was someone else. He shook his head. No, couldn't be. Nobody would go to so much trouble just for him.

"Do you want a biscuit?" Abby called from the kitchen.

"Please," he replied.

She came out a few seconds later with a mug and a plate of biscuits, handing him his drink before going back for her own. Something hanging over the back of the sofa caught Connor's eye and he reached for it, pulling it onto his lap as Abby returned to the living room.

"Hey, it's my favourite scarf," he said.

"Yeah, I suppose it must be. You wear it all the time."

"It is; I love this scarf, I always did."

"Connor, I bought you that for Christmas," Abby said. Her eyes went wide and she set her tea down on the table, turning to face him. "Do you remember getting it?"

He scrunched up his nose and shook his head, feeling frustration beginning to seep in again. "No I don't. I just remember really liking it."

He saw Abby's face fall in disappointment. It was obviously really important to her. "You'd said you needed a new scarf and gloves so I bought you some. Bought you a new game for your, X-Box, too which cost me a small fortune but for some reason, the scarf and gloves made you so happy that you actually hugged me. Should have just stuck with them and saved myself forty quid."

"My mum always buys me a scarf and gloves for Christmas, too," he said, grinning.

"Does she ever buy you computer games?"

He shook his head, still smiling. Abby was so easy to talk to. She didn't make him feel nervous or inadequate like most women did. It felt good to have a real friend of the opposite sex; he just wished he could remember more about their relationship.

After sitting on the sofa with Abby while they drank their tea, Connor was shown to his bedroom. As he looked around his personal space, it became obvious that he had lived here for some time. All his most prized possessions were scattered around the room - amongst the dirty boxers which littered the floor. There was no way anyone could have faked that; this was most definitely home. Abby left him alone and he grabbed a change of clothes before heading down to the bathroom for a shower.

When he came out of the bathroom wrapped in a red dressing gown he'd found hanging up on the back of the door, Abby was on the phone. She put it down quickly as he walked towards her and he could tell that the smile on her face was forced. She seemed to have paled somewhat and Connor even thought she was shaking slightly.

"Abby?" he asked. "Is everything ok?"

She sat down on the sofa and ran her hand through her hair. "Yeah, yeah," she replied unconvincingly.

"Something's wrong." He wasn't falling for it; he could tell something wasn't right.

"Maybe you should sit down, Connor," she said softly.

Connor couldn't help but feel a little worried. Abby was definitely upset about something, and she'd just been on the phone. Maybe it was something about him. Maybe his doctors had called with bad news.

"What is it?" he asked, still standing a few feet away.

Abby patted the seat beside her and he made his way over slowly. This was really serious; he could tell. It reminded him of the time his dad had told him his dog was sick and had to go to the vets to be put to sleep. It was what he had done; beckoned a young Connor over to sit down, wearing a serious expression on his face. He had that same sick feeling in the pit of his stomach now as he had then. Once he was sitting down next to her, Abby turned towards him and began to speak.

"I just got off the phone with Danny. I know that you usually check in with your Mum every week - give her a call to see how she is and give her any news - so I asked the guys to get in touch and tell her you were ok. We didn't want her to worry see." She paused and Connor felt his stomach begin to churn, his chest tightening with every breath. "Connor, the number was disconnected," she added.

"So she moved house?" Even as he said the words, he knew in his heart that they weren't true. Images began to flash through his mind; broken images of black suits and people crying.

Abby shook her head. "No, they made a few more calls. Oh God, Connor, I don't know how to say this. Your mum, she died - four months ago."

"W…w…w…what?" His voice didn't sound like it should. He sounded small and pathetic and childlike. "She can't be!"

"She is Connor, I'm so sorry."

He stood up and began to pace, scrubbing his hands over his face. "No! You're lying! You're lying! Why would you say that? It's cruel, Abby! You're cruel! I can't . . . I can't . . . you're lying!" Tears streamed down his cheeks, his whole body visibly shaking. He felt sick; he couldn't breathe and he had to get away.

"I'm not lying, Connor," she said softly. "I wouldn't lie to you, especially about that." She walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder but he shrugged her off, pushing her away. Abby stumbled backwards awkwardly as Connor stormed past and ran up to his room. Once there he fell back onto the bed, pulled the quilt over his head and sobbed. His heart ached; his whole world had fallen apart, torn in two - again.