Abby stared at the mess in her kitchen in disbelief as she walked through the front door of their flat, followed closely by Jenny. The kitchen was always a mess after Connor cooked of course, but this was slightly ridiculous. And where was he, anyway?

She'd had a terrific time shopping with her old friend and decided to invite Jenny to dinner, knowing that Connor would love to see her too; Jenny had happily accepted. Jenny started at the mess as well and then raised her eyebrows in amazement, "Abby, I think your kitchen exploded."

"So it would seem. This is why Jess and I don't let Connor cook every day."

"Connor cooked dinner?"

Abby laughed at the expression on her friend's face. "Sure, Connor cooks all the time. He's actually really good at it. Unfortunately, he leaves the clean up for Jess and I."

Jenny headed to the warming rack and took a sneak peak inside, wanting to see this to believe it. A heavenly aroma filled the air as soon as she opened it and she glanced at Abby, impressed. "Wow, that actually does look delicious. Man, there's a lot of food here though."

Abby stood behind Jenny and peered over her shoulder, "So there is, enough that…" her face lit up with the idea, "Jenny, you said you missed everyone, right? What if you help me tidy this up and I invite the rest of the team for dinner too? You could get the chance to see Lester, Becker, Emily and Matt again!"

Jenny grinned, "I'd love that. Well, mostly. Matt's kinda a party pooper though, isn't he?"

Abby laughed, remembering Jenny and Matt's first meeting, "He might not have made the best first impression," she agreed, "but he's a dear friend, I can't leave him out. Besides, Emily would kill me."

Jenny shook her head, "I still can't believe she's dating him," she replied as she grabbed a dish rag and started to clean.

Connor sat behind Jess in a chair in her bedroom, peering over her shoulder as she typed his ideas into her laptop. They'd started with the meal they had just made, but now Connor was excitedly making up new recipes on the spot and she was helping him record them to try later.

Jess' first lesson had gone really well, to her relief, and Connor had supervised as she'd made a second, and even a third, batch of the chicken, just for practice. Abby was going to go crazy when she saw how much food there was and the mess they'd left. The mess wasn't Jess' fault though, it was Connor that had started a food fight while they were waiting for the second batch of chicken to cook. Although, she supposed the second food fight that had ensued while Connor was teaching her how to make Cherry Cheese Danishes for dessert had been her fault, but surely that was besides the point. The kitchen had already been a mess by then.

They were interrupted mid-recipe by Jess' mobile vibrating on the desk beside her, indicating that she had a new text message. She picked it up and then grinned at Connor, "It's from Becker!" she exclaimed happily.

Connor smiled at her expression as Jess flipped the cover of her phone up and turned her phone away from Connor slightly so that he couldn't read the contents of her message.

You told Abby my secrets!

Jess froze. What was he talking about? She'd never said a word! Connor noticed the sudden frown on her face and put a hand on her shoulder, "Jess? Is everything alright?"

Jess nodded, "I think so, one second." She quickly typed a message back saying: I swear I didn't!

Then why has Abby just left a message on my phone saying there is a surprise for me if I come over for dinner?

Jess turned to Connor in a panic, "Abby just invited Becker over for dinner!"

"Really?" Connor looked at her in surprise. "That's odd she never said anything to us. But don't worry about it, Jess. We'll say you did most of the cooking and he'll look forward to Saturday even more! There's still plenty of time to teach you a new recipe before then so you don't have to serve him the same thing twice. Besides, now that you have all these written out, it'll be easy. You're brilliant enough to follow them."

Jess nodded, relaxing at Connor's reassurance and then texted Becker back, I have no idea what Abby meant or what she is up to, but I'll try to find out. Are you coming?

You sure you didn't tell?

Positive.

Then I'll be there. But do find out what is going on, Jessica. I really hate surprises.

I'll do my best, Jess promised, shutting her phone and turning to Connor. "Abby's up to something. She told Becker there was a surprise for him."

Connor grinned and stood, pulling Jess to her feet, "Then I'd guess we'd better go investigate, yeah?"

Jess nodded, "Exactly what I was thinking."

Jenny and Abby were just finishing with the clean up when Abby and Connor showed up in the kitchen.

"Jenny!" they cried in unison.

Jenny grinned and turned to give Connor a hug, "Still getting into trouble?" she asked with a smile.

"Who me? Nah!"

Jenny laughed, "Connor, I saw the mess you made in here; in fact, I cleaned it up."

Connor just laughed and pulled her in for one more quick hug before breaking away. "Jenny," he said, "This is Jess. Jess, Jenny."

Jenny smiled at the young girl in front of her, "So you're the one I've heard gives our Connor a run for his money when it comes to sheer brilliance. Nice to meet you."

Jess laughed and gave Jenny a hug, "Yep, that'd be me. Oh, it's so good to see you. We all miss you so much! I mean, I know you don't know me, but I've read your file, so I know you."

Jenny raised an eyebrow and Abby laughed, "Don't worry, she says that to everyone she meets. I'd think she was just trying to freak people out if she hadn't actually given Connor the keys to her flat before she knew him."

Jenny laughed but admonished the girl, "You gotta be careful, Jess."

Jess shrugged with one shoulder and smiled, without answering.

"Anyway," Abby said with a laugh to Connor and Jess, "I've invited the entire team for dinner to see Jenny, so you two might wanna get cleaned up. I'm not even going to ask what happened, but you're both a mess!"

Jess looked horrified and quickly scampered away to get changed before Becker arrived. Abby held Connor back for a moment though, and gave him a deep kiss. "Couldn't resist the cherry filling you're covered in," she said with a grin when they broke apart. "Now go get cleaned up." She swatted his backside with a dish towel as he hurried away.