Disclaimer: I don't own Primeval, and no copyright intended
A/N: I didn't intend to take the story in this direction, but I had a flash of inspiration and just had to explore it and get it down. Chapter is a little shorter than previous, although I might flesh it out a bit later .... get the tissues out!
It was Jenny that woke Abby the following morning. It hadn't surprised her in the slightest to find Abby curled up next to Connor, it looked perfectly natural, and she felt it was almost a shame to disturb her. But she had to, she needed to get Abby to take a break for a few hours, for her own sanity.
Abby stretched, and winced a little, she had cramp from being laid in an awkward position all night. "Is it morning already?"
"It is. The nurse asked me to wake you, she needs to come and do some checks on Connor and give him a wash" Jenny said
"Oh, right, sure." Abby stood up "Is there somewhere I can get a decent cup of coffee around here?"
"I think we can find somewhere" Jenny said. "A change of scene will do you good"
They drove for a few minutes to a small roadside Café. The coffee wasn't great, but it was hot and full of caffeine, just what Abby needed. She sipped it slowly, deep in thought. Jenny decided now was the time to approach a sensitive subject
"What do you know about Connor's family?"
Abby thought for a moment. "Absolutely nothing" It was true, in all the time she'd known Connor, she couldn't recall him ever mentioning family, and she certainly didn't recall him getting any phonecalls from family. She'd never pushed for information, she didn't like to talk about her own family and figured Connor was the same.
"Hmm, I was hoping you would know something. I went back to the ARC last night and went through his personal file. I thought we should try and contact someone, a relative … if he doesn't get better …..." Jenny stopped, not really wanting to think of what was coming next. "He hasn't listed a next of kin, and his emergency contact is you"
Abby was a little surprised at that. He wanted her to be the one that would be the first to be told if something happened to him? "I'm sorry, I really don't know anything about his family"
"We should at least make an effort to find an address or a phone number. Lester told me all Connor's things are back at your flat now, perhaps we should have a look through, see if we can find an address book or a diary or something" Jenny hoped Abby would agree, then at least whilst Abby was there she could persuade her to get some clothing and toiletries together.
"I don't know, Jenny. It doesn't seem right, going through his personal stuff"
"It could be important, Abby. Imagine how his mother would feel if she found out her son had …. before she'd had chance to say goodbye" Jenny took Abby's hand. "She has a right to know about him"
Reluctantly, Abby agreed to go back to the flat with Jenny.
--
Connor's belongings were all stacked together in a corner, his entire life stored in 5 large cardboard boxes. At least everything was together and they wouldn't have to go searching through drawers and cupboards. Abby had started with his mobile phone, but there was no-one on there she didn't know herself. She noted, with sadness, that Cutter was still stored there, Connor hadn't had the heart to delete him from his contacts. Jenny had tried to find something that resembled an address book or notebook, but there wasn't anything.
"Laptop!" Jenny said suddenly
"It'll be password protected, you know what he's like" Abby said. But Jenny tried anyway, sure enough, you needed a password to get past the first screen.
After half an hour, Abby came across on old biscuit tin. She rattled it, and thinking it contained collector cards or something, she almost dismissed it, but something made her peer inside. She was wrong. It contained photographs and documents. "Think I've got something" she said.
Jenny saw the contents. "That looks like it could be pretty personal stuff. You should look on your own. I'll make us a drink" She got up and disappeared to the kitchen, leaving Abby stretched out on the floor with the opened tin in front of her.
This tin contained tiny scraps of Connor's life, the photographs were of him as a child, that smile and mop of dark hair unmistakeable. Abby couldn't help but smile back as she looked through them. There was a man and a woman who appeared in several photos, Abby guessed they were his parents – Connor was the spitting image of his father. It also seemed Connor was an only child. It made Abby sad, despite her own unhappy childhood, she at least had a brother who got her through the most difficult times. Connor would have had no-one. She got about half way through the pile when a new face began to appear, a pretty girl with long dark hair. It was obvious from the photos that she was Connor's girlfriend. Abby felt a little stab of jealousy as she looked at the images of a happy, young smiling couple, obviously smitten with each other.
"Anything?" Jenny asked, as she brought Abby a mug of coffee.
"Not really, just photographs at the moment" Abby said, glad to have been interrupted so she could pull herself back together again.
"Should I put together an overnight bag for you?" Jenny asked, keen to be useful but not wanting to pry into Connor's personal things.
"Thanks, yes, that would be good" Abby said, as Jenny disappeared into the bathroom. Abby flipped through a few more photos until she reached one that made her gasp out. It was a wedding, Connor's wedding. He looked very young, barely 18, and the girl with the long dark hair even younger, but they looked very happy. She'd never seen Connor that happy before. Folded between some of the photos, Abby found the marriage certificate. "Alice Elizabeth Green" Abby read "so that's your name. Where are you now Alice?" The date of the wedding was just over two years before she had met Connor. She was suddenly seeing him in a totally new light, what had happened in that two years?
Her question was to be answered soon enough. After the wedding photos, there was another bunch of papers. Abby unfolded them, half expecting them to be divorce papers, but she was wrong, and what she saw made her heart rip into pieces. There were three sets of death certificates, all dated for the same date around 5 weeks after the wedding. David, Anna and Alice Temple, all died the same day. Abby began to weep, poor Connor! He had lost his parents and his wife at the same time. She wiped her eyes as she began to unfold the last piece of paper in the tin, a newspaper clipping. It told the story of a "local family" who had been run off the road by a lorry on the wrong side of the road. The driver, David Temple, had been killed instantly when their car hit a tree. Anna and Alice died hours later in hospital. Connor had not been in the car.
It all made sense now. The ring Connor wore around his neck, she'd always assumed it had been his mother's, but it was his wife's, and he wasn't the inexperienced, shy geek everyone thought he was – he was simply trying to get on with his life after a terrible tragedy, wanting to be loved again but probably scared to get too close to anyone in case he lost them too.
Fighting back tears, Abby carefully folded all the papers and placed everything back into the tin, closing the lid tight. She really was the only person Connor had, the only one he had let in. "What am I doing here? I should be with him!" she said. She went to find Jenny.
"Did you find anything?" Jenny said cheerily, but her face fell when she saw Abby's tear stained face "Everything OK?"
Abby nodded "I just want to get back to Connor, that's all"
Jenny put a comforting hand on Abby's shoulder. "Of course. Just have a check in the bag to make sure I've got everything, and you might want to go and get some underwear" She didn't press Abby any further, sensing that she didn't want to talk.
"Thanks" Abby said, her voice barely a whisper. All she could think of was the hell Connor must have gone through over the last few years, and the hard time she'd given him. She decided that, when Connor was recovered, she'd push aside her own reservations and fears about relationships – if Connor could move on after his personal tragedy, then she could too.