"Team Conby," Connor said with a grin. "It's a mixture of our names."

Abby frowned, "Why is your name first?"

"Because Team Abnor sounds dumb, not to mention everyone would tease us and call us Team Abnor-mal."

"You're right; it does sound dumb," Abby relented, "But what do you mean by "everybody"? Surely you're not actually going to tell everyone about this are you?"

Now it was Connor's turn to frown a bit, "Why not? Abby I'm… I'm so proud that you want to be on my side; I just gotta tell everyone!"

Abby's face softened into a smile, "Okay, Con, you can tell."

Connor's eyes lit up, "Really, Abs?"

Abby nodded. Suddenly she felt a bit ashamed of herself. Connor was her best friend and, in Abby's eyes, the greatest guy on earth. He was fun, smart, had a great sense of humour. He always kept her secrets and he was completely loyal to her. He'd do anything for Abby and she knew it. To be honest, she was proud too. She was proud every time he picked her first to go somewhere with him, or every time he told everyone how great she was. She was ashamed now as she realised that she never told him that. She treated him like a pesky kid and she knew he believed it was how she saw him. And she couldn't deny that he also did embarrass her at times, but she wished she wasn't like that and she knew it was more her own insecurities than Connor's actions that caused those feelings. The thing was that she didn't know how to tell him: didn't know how to express her feelings. The kiss from a couple weeks ago obviously hadn't worked since Connor had never made a move since.

"Abby, what's wrong?" Connor asked, looking unsure.

Abby realised she'd been silent for too long. "Sorry, Con," she smiled at him. "I was just thinking."

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, seriously for once.

Abby smiled; she really did, she just didn't quite know how to start. "Maybe," she sighed.

Connor sat silent, waiting for her to decide.

"Connor, let's make up the handshake now," Abby said suddenly, changing the subject and grinning at him.

Connor frowned, seeing through her fake smile, "Abby, why don't we talk first? I know something is bugging you."

"Later."

"When?" Connor pressed. "Will you tell me after we invent our handshake?"

"I might."

"You know I won't tell anyone your secrets, Abs?"

Abby smiled at him, "I know that, Con. It's not really a secret even. I was just thinking about something I've been meaning to ask you for awhile now."

"Ask me now."

Abby took a deep breath before glancing at Connor and then down to her hands and then out to the forest. Finally she decided the ground would be the safest place to look. "Connor, I kissed you once."

Connor caught his breath in surprise, "Oh." It wasn't exactly new information; he'd thought about it every spare moment he could since that day. What surprised him was that she was bringing it up now, after so long. To be honest, he'd thought she'd forgotten. He was silent for a moment and then looked at her, "But Abby, that's not a question."

"I guess I want to know, why don't you ever do stuff like that?"

Connor was really confused now, "Like kiss you, you mean?"

Abby nodded, "Yeah. You always say nice things about me, but you never try to kiss me or hold my hand or anything. It's always me that does stuff like that and I'm never sure if it's okay or not. You act like it's okay. You smile at me and you've never pushed me away. Your response is positive, but I worry that if you actually liked it, you'd initiate it yourself sometimes you know. I wish that, if I was out of place, you'd tell me."

She finally looked up and saw that Connor was staring at her, mouth open, in shock. Before he could respond though, Becker suddenly came back into the clearing. Connor saw Abby wince at the interruption as she quickly looked away from him.

"Guys, I found our friend Spino. He's about a mile from here and he's huge. Sorry Abs, but we're gonna have to kill him. There's no sign of an anomaly so it must have closed already and you cannot keep a Spinosaurus; there's just no way."

Abby didn't say anything; she just stood and followed Becker. She could feel Connor's eyes on her still and she felt a bit embarrassed, but suddenly he was at her side and she felt him grab her hand and squeeze it. She looked up at his face and saw that he was smiling at her and she felt her heart leap a bit when she saw the tenderness in his eyes. She gripped his hand tighter and bit her lip as she stared into the wood.

"Wow," Danny said as he stepped forward. In his amazement, he had dropped Sarah's hand. Suddenly he started to laugh and Sarah looked at him curiously. "Special Sheep Indeed!" he chortled, "These aren't wild! This is our Farmer's land. Look, there's the barn." He pointed over the valley a bit below them to the building.

"You mean…" Sarah started in a questioning tone.

"Yep. It's not a sheep farm; it's a Stegosaurus farm! There's hundreds of them!"

"How the hell did he keep that a secret?"

"Well his entire land is shrouded either by forest or cliffs; I'm sure that helps! Couldn't have been easy though."

"No wonder he was convinced it wasn't a bear attacking his flock. Abby'll want to see this."

Danny frowned, "Abby'll want to keep them all is what she'll do. There's no anomaly to send them back through."

"They're tame, obviously the farmer has been breeding them," Sarah agreed, "Abby'll kill you if you suggest putting them down. We might have to let her keep them."

"What?" Danny jerked his head around to stare at Sarah, "What on earth would she do with them?"

"Well, Lester will be relieving the sheep farmer of his farm I'm sure, so she can probably keep them right here. The ARC will pay for someone to look after them for her and we can put up a guard around the land."

Danny sighed, "We'll see. We'll have to discuss with Lester I supposed. Now, should we confront the farmer first, or go find the others?"

"Stegos have been here for ages, they aren't going anywhere and the Spinosaurus might be. Let's find the others. I'm sure if they've been walking all this time they aren't that far away now. We should be able to cut across and find them pretty quickly."

Danny nodded and took her hand again as he followed her lead.

Becker noticed with amusement that both Connor and Abby were completely silent as they walked and he didn't think it had anything to do with either his singing or the Spinosaurus. For one thing, they were holding hands again and for another, they kept glancing at each other nervously and then looking away again, but always sharing a secret smile first.

After awhile, Connor finally turned to Becker and spoke, "Hey! Action Man! Guess what?"

Becker raised his eyebrows questioningly, "What?"

"Me and Abs formed our own team called Team Conby and we're gonna have a secret handshake and everything!"

"That's cute, Guys. I had a secret handshake with one of my friends once when I was eleven."

His tone was patronizing, but Connor wasn't at all fazed by his taunting. Instead he eagerly asked, "Really? Show us the handshake!"

"I can't. One, I don't remember it and two, I promised her I'd never show anyone and I always keep my promises, no matter how silly."

"Her? Was she cute?"

Becker chuckled, "Yeah, she was actually."

"First girlfriend?"

"Hardly. I was eleven."

"First crush then?"

"Still no, I didn't think of her like that."

"Why not?"

Becker laughed, "She was four. She was my neighbour's granddaughter. Used to follow me everywhere and chat non-stop. I hated it at first, but she was the only other kid in the neighbourhood and I grew to enjoy her company and chatter. Anyway, she always said I was super strong because I gave her piggy back rides."

"Thought you said friend, not babysitting charge." Abby laughed.

Becker grinned at her, "You call Connor your friend, don't you?"

Abby laughed harder, "Point taken."

Connor stared at them, "I do not need a babysitter."

Abby squeezed his hand, "We're teasing you Connor."

Becker's eyebrows raised, "I beg to differ."

Abby ignored it and instead asked, "You never talk your past. Tell us more about this girl. Was she special?"

Becker shrugged, "I guess for a little while. My parents were proud of me for taking her under my wing and her grandparents gave me milk and cookies so I guess I thought it was worth it. She was a smart little thing. She always wore Disney Princess costumes, but she never asked me to play dress up. Instead she wanted to play Cops and Robbers. I made us a fort and set up a secret club, just me and her, but that was mostly because there was no one my own age to do that kind of thing with and I always wanted a secret club like the boys in the novels I'd read. The secret handshake was her idea, she'd seen it on TV."

"What was her name?"

"Jessica. Can't remember her last name though. She was about six when she moved away. By that time I was a teenager and too old to be interested in her games anymore anyway, so I barely noticed that she was gone."

"Maybe one day you'll meet her again," Abby said.

Becker shrugged. "Doubt I'd recognize her even if I did," he laughed. "Now shush, we're getting close."

They all froze as they heard a crash in the forest quite close to where they stood.