Voila, one of the filler fics I've been working on for my A/B/C book project! Debated whether to post this or just keep it only in the book, but figured it'd make sense to give at least some hint of what I've been working on for the last few weeks, since I've not been posting much fic at all.
Fandom: Primeval
Characters: Abby/Connor, with A/B/C references, Becker, Jess.
Story: Family Planning
Rating: NC-17/MA (Though mild by my usual standards)
Warnings/Spoilers: Early s4 spoilers. Condom thievery.
Author's Note: Set between 4x02 and 4x03, the day after Both Worlds Part 3, and the day before Encore.
Summary: It's the day after their big shagfest, and Connor's still thinking about it. Unfortunately, the other two seem not to be.
Family Planning
“That’s so cute!” A high-pitched giggle made Connor turn and glance back at the open bathroom door. Jess stood there, grinning madly, her phone held out in front of her to frame a shot.
Already giddy from playfully combating Abby’s attempts to help him shave off his Cretaceous-grown scruff, he merely smiled big, mugging for the camera and getting his face up against Abby’s as the flash went off.
“Oi, GQ.” Abby pushed him away. “Quit messing about, you knob. We need to get you scrubbed up so we can get to work.” Her voice sounded stern, but she couldn’t help a hint of a smile—even if her face was now just as full of shaving foam as his own.
“Oh!” Jess piped up. “Actually, I meant to tell you: Lester said that you two can have the morning off if you like. Go out and get yourselves some proper new clothes and such. He said you could do it on the company account.” She reached into the purse hanging from her shoulder, and produced a shiny credit card.
“Really?” Abby blinked, taking the card gingerly.
“Sure, absolutely,” Jess chirped. “Connor needs to be back this afternoon for the intake thing—medical checkup, ID band, all that—but otherwise, you’re free. I’ll call you if we get an anomaly.”
“Wow, thanks.” Connor beamed. “Gotta admit, I’m looking forward to wearing something other than the stuff they left us with yesterday.”
“I don’t blame you. I swear, the supply team has absolutely no sense of style.” Jess waved a dismissive hand.
Connor stifled a laugh. Today, she was in a hot-pink dress with lime-green heels and a chunky, purple necklace that looked like the droppings of one of the proto-mammals they’d left behind in the ancient past.
“I’d go out with you and help,” Jess continued, “but I have an early meeting to get to. Something about new Hub security protocols or something. Becker’s running it, and if I’m late, he’ll make sure I hear about it.” She flushed a little.
Abby looked away, and Connor cleared his throat. “A’ight then,” he said, squirming. “We’ll see you at the ARC this afternoon, hey?”
“Yep! Lock up when you leave!” Jess turned and sauntered out.
“Will do,” Abby called after her. She looked at him in the mirror. “Well! Guess we have a bit more time, yeah?”
“Guess we do.” As soon as he heard the front door close, he descended on her, half-shaved, foamy-faced and all.
Just 10 minutes later, he lay there on the bathroom floor, panting and laughing with relief, gazing up at Abby’s half-naked form as she knelt atop him. She was beautiful, even sleepy-eyed, unshowered and covered in smears of shaving foam and bits of wiry beard hair.
“Think Jess will mind that we nicked this?” Connor glanced over at the empty condom packet on the floor next to them.
“Nah.” Abby shook her head and leaned down to kiss him. “Just glad she had some around, actually. We need to get a proper supply of our own.”
“We do. We have a lot of lost time to make up for.” He smiled significantly at her.
“Oh, god.” She laughed and squirmed, her still-aroused body clenching around him.
“Whoa! Steady on!” The way she moved had dislodged the condom a little, and he could feel it slipping away from his soppy, softening cock.
“Oops! Sorry.” She rolled her hips back carefully. He reached between them, grabbing the base of the thing to keep it from coming off as she dismounted. “Good thing is that we can ditch them in a little while,” she said.
He froze. “How’s that?” Of course, he wanted to father a child with her someday, but so soon?
She saw the look of panic in his eyes. “Not that, silly.” She punched him lightly on the chest. “Meds. When they did my physical yesterday, the medic said they could hook me up. Figured that’d be a good idea.”
“Oh! Right.” He sighed and silently cursed himself for being clueless about such things.
“Few weeks and we won’t need these at all.” She took the spent condom he handed her and chucked it in the bin near the toilet, then helped him to his feet.
“Yay!” He cheered. Granted that being able to be inside her at all was amazing, but the thought of doing it without the latex in the way sounded even better. But then, a sudden thought made him pause. “Wait. Abby?”
“Hm?” She looked over her shoulder as she was turning on the shower tap.
“Wouldn’t we still need them?”
She stared at him. “What for?”
He paused, slightly uncomfortable. They’d certainly talked about Becker enough when they were alone in the past, and since yesterday morning’s amazing, chaotic romp, he knew they’d both been thinking about it. Why did it seem so weird to talk about it now that it had finally happened? Was she not interested in doing anything more? He closed his mouth. “Nothing, I guess. Nevermind.” He shook his head, clearing the thought. “Scoot.” He nudged her aside and stepped into the shower.
***
“Hey!” Jess turned and headed toward them as they got out of the elevator and made their way into the ops room. “Welcome back. I see you’re both better dressed, now!”
Connor looked down at his jeans and long-sleeved shirt. It felt somewhat boring compared to how he’d dressed the last time he was in the present, but Abby had said maybe it was time they both looked at least a little more professional. “You think so?”
“Yes, absolutely!” Jess beelined for Abby, reaching out to fondle the sleeve of the new leather jacket she sported.
Becker came round the corner, apparently having heard them arrive. He stopped short, gazing at them both in an uncharacteristically rapt way.
Abby glanced up, Jess being distracted by the engraving on her new belt buckle. “Hi.” She smiled—shyly, Connor noticed.
“Hi,” Becker returned. A little thrill ran through Connor as he watched Becker’s eyes travelling over Abby, taking in the low-cut vest, the tight jeans…
Jess looked up, finally seeing him there. “Hey Becker! Don’t they both look great?” She chirped.
He looked startled for a moment, and blinked at Jess. “Um. Yeah. Nice.” He cleared his throat, and a different, more-detached look crossed his face. He smirked at Connor. “Well done, Temple. Finally got a proper haircut and a shave.” He strode past, clapping Connor on the shoulder as he went.
Jess rolled her eyes. “Oh, really.” She grinned at Connor. “I suppose he’d probably prefer if you were both in uniform or something. All that basic black. He never wears anything else. I wonder sometimes if that kit is permanently attached to him. Like, he’s never actually naked, just even showers in it or something.”
“Uh?” Connor gaped at her.
Her cheeks went nearly as pink as her dress. “Not that I’ve seen… I mean, I’ve not thought—“
“The uniform works for him, though,” Abby finally interjected, saving Jess from embarrassing herself any further.
“Yep.” Connor nodded. “That’s our Becker. Never a hair out of place.”
“Right!” Jess laughed nervously. “Anyway. So, your ID band should be ready in an hour or so. If you want, you can go have a look round while you’re waiting, as long as Abby’s escorting you. Maybe check in on the menagerie?”
“There’s an idea,” Abby grinned at him. “I’m sure Rex would love to see you.” She turned and headed toward the corridor.
“Yeah! Great!” Connor started after her, but then he paused, looking back the direction Becker had gone. He felt strangely disappointed. For a moment, it had seemed like there was a spark there again, like the warm, close afterglow from yesterday’s tryst was going to carry over into more. But maybe not. Maybe it was just a one-time thing—just the release of a year’s worth of tension and missing each other. Maybe now that they’d spent that energy, and they were all officially a professional team again, there wouldn’t be anything more. Maybe the other two just didn’t want what he wanted.
Not, of course, that having only Abby was disappointing. That jacket certainly did suit her, and her arse looked fantastic in those jeans...
“Coming, Connor?” Abby looked back over her shoulder, and caught where his eyes had been. She grinned at him.
“Oh, yeah!” He hustled to follow her.
***
The rest of the afternoon was sedate—if slightly surreal.
He agreed with Abby that the conditions in the menagerie weren’t ideal. Poor Sid and Nancy seemed downright glum, parked in a reinforced, chew-resistant concrete box with next to no natural light coming in. They perked up when they saw him, but quickly went back to being quiet. The new ARC policy that they couldn’t take any of the creatures out of the facility made it all that much more frustrating.
Beyond that, however, things seemed almost normal, to his surprise. Less than 48 hours back in modern life, and with a whole new facility to explore and a tonne of new people to meet, he felt like he should have been hopelessly disoriented, yet he wasn’t. Having Abby along helped matters considerably, her familiar presence at his side a welcome comfort.
And having Becker around helped, too.
He seemed to be shadowing them, though Connor knew that couldn’t actually be the case. They’d pass him on the way to the medical bay, or up in the lab corridors, or down by the vehicle fleet. He insisted on giving them both a proper introduction to the armoury and a bit more practice with the new weapons, coming up close to correct their stance or show them how a particular setting worked.
There were no words spoken—no reference to what had happened between them—and Becker didn’t even openly flirt. Yet the undercurrent of energy when he was nearby was very nearly visible—but only apparently to Connor. Every time something happened that made him shiver a little with memory, he’d look over at Becker or Abby, only to find them apparently entirely unaware of the implication.
By the time they were headed back—Jess chattering away as she drove them home—he’d begun to wonder if he’d imagined it all.
Finally, at the end of the day, a couple of glasses of red wine broke down his reticence. As they were bedding down for the night in the guest room Jess had set up for them, he broached the subject.
“Abby,” he said calmly as she nestled into his chest.
“Hm?”
“OK, so you know I’m not good with the whole… reading people thing. I get things wrong sometimes. I don’t really understand personal stuff easily. So, please forgive me for being blunt about this, yeah?”
She sat up, looking at him with concern. “Sure. What’s wrong?”
“Did we…” he heaved a breath, trying to steady himself. “Do you think we make a mistake yesterday? With Becker?”
She frowned at him. “No. Why? Do you feel that way?”
He relaxed a little and shook his head. “I don’t, no. The opposite, in fact. But…” he chewed his lip. “Was that it? I mean, would you want to do that again?”
She smiled lopsidedly, and lay back down, burrowing under his arm. “Well, the short answer is yes. That was honestly one of the best experiences of my life, and I’ve been thinking about it pretty much constantly ever since. An encore of that? Would be pretty amazing.”
“Yeah, it would.” He squirmed with memory. “But what’s the long answer?”
She lightly stroked his chest, fingertips tracing random patterns over his skin. “The long answer is that there’s more to it than that, now. I mean, since we’re back and things are sort of normal again, we’re not just…” she hummed quietly as she thought. “It’s not like we have the same reasons now. If it happened again, it would have to be something more, I dunno, planned or something, I guess.”
“What do you mean?”
She sighed quietly. “Thing is, all of this—aside from the you and me stuff—this was all kind of spontaneous and random. Your night with him, mine, yesterday. It all just sort of happened, and maybe that’s just how things were supposed to be with him. Just a little casual thing. Not something… ongoing.”
“But it’s not like he’s some random bloke we hooked up with. He’s our friend. We care about him. I do, at least.”
“Well, of course. And I know he cares about us, too. But it’s been a year. A lot has changed for all of us. We don’t really know him as well as we used to, and let’s face it, we didn’t know him all that intimately before, either.”
“Oh, I dunno, I got pretty intimate with him…” He grinned down at her.
She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I do. I think.” He petted her hair while he considered her words. “Our Becks isn’t exactly an open book, that’s for sure.”
“Right. And for all we know, maybe doing this again isn’t something he’d want. Maybe he feels more comfortable just keeping things friendly, and if we tried to go for more, it would make things weird.”
Weird. He suddenly got an uncomfortable echo of the way she had acted after their first kiss. “Is that what you want? To just keep things like that?”
Her breath hitched. “I… I don’t know.” She fidgeted. “Like I say, I loved it, but really, if nothing else ever happened with him, I’d be OK with it. I’m perfectly content to be with just you. I don’t need him or anyone else.”
He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Same here.”
She returned the squeeze, then rolled over and stared at the ceiling. “But I admit that the idea of doing that again also does scare me a little, too.”
“How so?”
“Well, I’ve only just got used to the idea of us—of you and me. It’s not been that long. It still feels like it’s not quite real sometimes. I keep wondering whether it’s going to all go pear-shaped tomorrow.”
He turned, trying to catch her eye. “Abby, I’m not going—“
“No.” She cut him off with a gentle hand to his lips. “You don’t have to say it. It’s fine.” She turned back onto her side and smiled gently at him. “No, it’s just that something unexpected happened yesterday when we were with him. Maybe it was just me, I don’t know, and maybe this will sound strange…”
He squeezed her hand again, encouraging her to continue.
“But there was something else going on there besides just an amazing shag. For me, at least. When we came through that anomaly and he picked us up, it was like we were home in more ways than just that. Something just felt… right…about it. I thought for a while that it was just, y’know, being back and missing him. Or that it was just hormones or whatever. But it—being with him—it meant something to me.” She met his eyes. “You don’t have any reason to be jealous or anything. It’s not like it is with you. It’s different. But yes, I felt something for him, and if we did that again, I’d feel the same, and it might be stronger this time.”
“And that scares you?”
She nodded.
“Oh, Abby.” He reached for her, drawing her close, and was gratified to feel the tension leave her body. She didn’t have to explain any further—he got it. He didn’t know as much as he wanted to about her family history, but he knew enough to understand that she was wary of getting close to people—always afraid that they’d eventually leave.
Pulling back a little, he put a hand to her face, wiping away a small tear with his thumb. He smiled tenderly at her. “For what it’s worth, I felt the same way yesterday, and I’d been worried that I was the only one.”
She smiled, relieved. “Apparently not.”
“Nope! And I certainly feel a lot better for that.” He kissed her nose. “But I guess we need to decide what we do about it now. I’ll be honest: I would definitely like more, if we could. The sex part, of course, and…well. I don’t know what else. Just something beyond that. Though, I’m not even sure what that would be like. Dating or something? I don’t know. All of this is pretty new to me in general, so… yeah.”
“Yeah. This is definitely slightly odd, whatever it is. Or would be.” She nibbled on her lip.
“Honestly, it’s up to you. And him, of course.” He flashed a quick grin. “I can go either way. Whatever you want—whatever you’re comfortable with—even if that means yesterday was the one and only time for that.”
“Thank you. That really means a lot to me.” She nestled close. “I think I just need to give it some more thought. Just take it easy and see how things go. See if I feel differently.”
“Sure. I’m perfectly fine with that.”
“It may be moot anyway.” She shrugged. “I mean, we don’t know how he feels, and asking about it would probably be awkward. If he really did just want it to be a one-time thing, that would make it all really uncomfortable for us, and what with the job and stuff, that wouldn’t be good.”
“Right. Definitely,” he agreed. “Though, on the other hand, trying to work with him if we still have all that tension? Might drive us both mad. And that wouldn’t be good, either. Be kind of dangerous to be tracking something deadly when we’re distracted by staring at his arse or something.” He winked at her.
“True.” She giggled a little. “Honestly, just having his arms around me today when he was checking my weapons stance? Thought I was about to fall over and die.”
He giggled himself. “Yeah, well. I thought I was going to die just watching that.” A surge ran through him as the memory came up.
“Mmmhm. And the way you squirm when he looks at you is quite interesting. You’re terrible at hiding when you’re aroused.” She dropped a kiss on his shoulder.
“Cheeky!” He protested.
“Just an observation,” she teased. “Animal behaviourist, you know.”
His eyes narrowed, and he smiled slyly. “So, what are you observing now then, hey?” He wormed closer to her, nudging against her hip with his growing erection.
She raised an eyebrow. “The mating habits of the Northern horny goat?”
He burst out with a slightly too-loud laugh, which was quickly swallowed up by a deep kiss. In just a few moments, they were entangled, caressing and petting sensitive places, trying to keep as quiet as they could to avoid Jess—puttering around in the bathroom on the other side of the wall—hearing them. Then, just as things started getting interesting, she stopped him.
“Dammit.”
“Huh?” He mumbled around a mouthful of nipple.
“We forgot to buy condoms today.”
“Oh. Right. Hell.” He grumbled. He listened carefully—Jess was in the still in the bathroom, so sneaking out to pilfer more of her stash was not an option.
Fortunately, he knew of plenty of other ways they could please each other, and shifted around, making his way down to get his face between her legs.
“When we do buy them, though?” She said thoughtfully, threading her hand in his hair as he began kissing her thighs. “We should get plenty. Just in case.”
He popped his head up, gazing at her in curious surprise. The smile she sported was unmistakable.
--End--
Fandom: Primeval
Characters: Abby/Connor, with A/B/C references, Becker, Jess.
Story: Family Planning
Rating: NC-17/MA (Though mild by my usual standards)
Warnings/Spoilers: Early s4 spoilers. Condom thievery.
Author's Note: Set between 4x02 and 4x03, the day after Both Worlds Part 3, and the day before Encore.
Summary: It's the day after their big shagfest, and Connor's still thinking about it. Unfortunately, the other two seem not to be.
Family Planning
“That’s so cute!” A high-pitched giggle made Connor turn and glance back at the open bathroom door. Jess stood there, grinning madly, her phone held out in front of her to frame a shot.
Already giddy from playfully combating Abby’s attempts to help him shave off his Cretaceous-grown scruff, he merely smiled big, mugging for the camera and getting his face up against Abby’s as the flash went off.
“Oi, GQ.” Abby pushed him away. “Quit messing about, you knob. We need to get you scrubbed up so we can get to work.” Her voice sounded stern, but she couldn’t help a hint of a smile—even if her face was now just as full of shaving foam as his own.
“Oh!” Jess piped up. “Actually, I meant to tell you: Lester said that you two can have the morning off if you like. Go out and get yourselves some proper new clothes and such. He said you could do it on the company account.” She reached into the purse hanging from her shoulder, and produced a shiny credit card.
“Really?” Abby blinked, taking the card gingerly.
“Sure, absolutely,” Jess chirped. “Connor needs to be back this afternoon for the intake thing—medical checkup, ID band, all that—but otherwise, you’re free. I’ll call you if we get an anomaly.”
“Wow, thanks.” Connor beamed. “Gotta admit, I’m looking forward to wearing something other than the stuff they left us with yesterday.”
“I don’t blame you. I swear, the supply team has absolutely no sense of style.” Jess waved a dismissive hand.
Connor stifled a laugh. Today, she was in a hot-pink dress with lime-green heels and a chunky, purple necklace that looked like the droppings of one of the proto-mammals they’d left behind in the ancient past.
“I’d go out with you and help,” Jess continued, “but I have an early meeting to get to. Something about new Hub security protocols or something. Becker’s running it, and if I’m late, he’ll make sure I hear about it.” She flushed a little.
Abby looked away, and Connor cleared his throat. “A’ight then,” he said, squirming. “We’ll see you at the ARC this afternoon, hey?”
“Yep! Lock up when you leave!” Jess turned and sauntered out.
“Will do,” Abby called after her. She looked at him in the mirror. “Well! Guess we have a bit more time, yeah?”
“Guess we do.” As soon as he heard the front door close, he descended on her, half-shaved, foamy-faced and all.
Just 10 minutes later, he lay there on the bathroom floor, panting and laughing with relief, gazing up at Abby’s half-naked form as she knelt atop him. She was beautiful, even sleepy-eyed, unshowered and covered in smears of shaving foam and bits of wiry beard hair.
“Think Jess will mind that we nicked this?” Connor glanced over at the empty condom packet on the floor next to them.
“Nah.” Abby shook her head and leaned down to kiss him. “Just glad she had some around, actually. We need to get a proper supply of our own.”
“We do. We have a lot of lost time to make up for.” He smiled significantly at her.
“Oh, god.” She laughed and squirmed, her still-aroused body clenching around him.
“Whoa! Steady on!” The way she moved had dislodged the condom a little, and he could feel it slipping away from his soppy, softening cock.
“Oops! Sorry.” She rolled her hips back carefully. He reached between them, grabbing the base of the thing to keep it from coming off as she dismounted. “Good thing is that we can ditch them in a little while,” she said.
He froze. “How’s that?” Of course, he wanted to father a child with her someday, but so soon?
She saw the look of panic in his eyes. “Not that, silly.” She punched him lightly on the chest. “Meds. When they did my physical yesterday, the medic said they could hook me up. Figured that’d be a good idea.”
“Oh! Right.” He sighed and silently cursed himself for being clueless about such things.
“Few weeks and we won’t need these at all.” She took the spent condom he handed her and chucked it in the bin near the toilet, then helped him to his feet.
“Yay!” He cheered. Granted that being able to be inside her at all was amazing, but the thought of doing it without the latex in the way sounded even better. But then, a sudden thought made him pause. “Wait. Abby?”
“Hm?” She looked over her shoulder as she was turning on the shower tap.
“Wouldn’t we still need them?”
She stared at him. “What for?”
He paused, slightly uncomfortable. They’d certainly talked about Becker enough when they were alone in the past, and since yesterday morning’s amazing, chaotic romp, he knew they’d both been thinking about it. Why did it seem so weird to talk about it now that it had finally happened? Was she not interested in doing anything more? He closed his mouth. “Nothing, I guess. Nevermind.” He shook his head, clearing the thought. “Scoot.” He nudged her aside and stepped into the shower.
***
“Hey!” Jess turned and headed toward them as they got out of the elevator and made their way into the ops room. “Welcome back. I see you’re both better dressed, now!”
Connor looked down at his jeans and long-sleeved shirt. It felt somewhat boring compared to how he’d dressed the last time he was in the present, but Abby had said maybe it was time they both looked at least a little more professional. “You think so?”
“Yes, absolutely!” Jess beelined for Abby, reaching out to fondle the sleeve of the new leather jacket she sported.
Becker came round the corner, apparently having heard them arrive. He stopped short, gazing at them both in an uncharacteristically rapt way.
Abby glanced up, Jess being distracted by the engraving on her new belt buckle. “Hi.” She smiled—shyly, Connor noticed.
“Hi,” Becker returned. A little thrill ran through Connor as he watched Becker’s eyes travelling over Abby, taking in the low-cut vest, the tight jeans…
Jess looked up, finally seeing him there. “Hey Becker! Don’t they both look great?” She chirped.
He looked startled for a moment, and blinked at Jess. “Um. Yeah. Nice.” He cleared his throat, and a different, more-detached look crossed his face. He smirked at Connor. “Well done, Temple. Finally got a proper haircut and a shave.” He strode past, clapping Connor on the shoulder as he went.
Jess rolled her eyes. “Oh, really.” She grinned at Connor. “I suppose he’d probably prefer if you were both in uniform or something. All that basic black. He never wears anything else. I wonder sometimes if that kit is permanently attached to him. Like, he’s never actually naked, just even showers in it or something.”
“Uh?” Connor gaped at her.
Her cheeks went nearly as pink as her dress. “Not that I’ve seen… I mean, I’ve not thought—“
“The uniform works for him, though,” Abby finally interjected, saving Jess from embarrassing herself any further.
“Yep.” Connor nodded. “That’s our Becker. Never a hair out of place.”
“Right!” Jess laughed nervously. “Anyway. So, your ID band should be ready in an hour or so. If you want, you can go have a look round while you’re waiting, as long as Abby’s escorting you. Maybe check in on the menagerie?”
“There’s an idea,” Abby grinned at him. “I’m sure Rex would love to see you.” She turned and headed toward the corridor.
“Yeah! Great!” Connor started after her, but then he paused, looking back the direction Becker had gone. He felt strangely disappointed. For a moment, it had seemed like there was a spark there again, like the warm, close afterglow from yesterday’s tryst was going to carry over into more. But maybe not. Maybe it was just a one-time thing—just the release of a year’s worth of tension and missing each other. Maybe now that they’d spent that energy, and they were all officially a professional team again, there wouldn’t be anything more. Maybe the other two just didn’t want what he wanted.
Not, of course, that having only Abby was disappointing. That jacket certainly did suit her, and her arse looked fantastic in those jeans...
“Coming, Connor?” Abby looked back over her shoulder, and caught where his eyes had been. She grinned at him.
“Oh, yeah!” He hustled to follow her.
***
The rest of the afternoon was sedate—if slightly surreal.
He agreed with Abby that the conditions in the menagerie weren’t ideal. Poor Sid and Nancy seemed downright glum, parked in a reinforced, chew-resistant concrete box with next to no natural light coming in. They perked up when they saw him, but quickly went back to being quiet. The new ARC policy that they couldn’t take any of the creatures out of the facility made it all that much more frustrating.
Beyond that, however, things seemed almost normal, to his surprise. Less than 48 hours back in modern life, and with a whole new facility to explore and a tonne of new people to meet, he felt like he should have been hopelessly disoriented, yet he wasn’t. Having Abby along helped matters considerably, her familiar presence at his side a welcome comfort.
And having Becker around helped, too.
He seemed to be shadowing them, though Connor knew that couldn’t actually be the case. They’d pass him on the way to the medical bay, or up in the lab corridors, or down by the vehicle fleet. He insisted on giving them both a proper introduction to the armoury and a bit more practice with the new weapons, coming up close to correct their stance or show them how a particular setting worked.
There were no words spoken—no reference to what had happened between them—and Becker didn’t even openly flirt. Yet the undercurrent of energy when he was nearby was very nearly visible—but only apparently to Connor. Every time something happened that made him shiver a little with memory, he’d look over at Becker or Abby, only to find them apparently entirely unaware of the implication.
By the time they were headed back—Jess chattering away as she drove them home—he’d begun to wonder if he’d imagined it all.
Finally, at the end of the day, a couple of glasses of red wine broke down his reticence. As they were bedding down for the night in the guest room Jess had set up for them, he broached the subject.
“Abby,” he said calmly as she nestled into his chest.
“Hm?”
“OK, so you know I’m not good with the whole… reading people thing. I get things wrong sometimes. I don’t really understand personal stuff easily. So, please forgive me for being blunt about this, yeah?”
She sat up, looking at him with concern. “Sure. What’s wrong?”
“Did we…” he heaved a breath, trying to steady himself. “Do you think we make a mistake yesterday? With Becker?”
She frowned at him. “No. Why? Do you feel that way?”
He relaxed a little and shook his head. “I don’t, no. The opposite, in fact. But…” he chewed his lip. “Was that it? I mean, would you want to do that again?”
She smiled lopsidedly, and lay back down, burrowing under his arm. “Well, the short answer is yes. That was honestly one of the best experiences of my life, and I’ve been thinking about it pretty much constantly ever since. An encore of that? Would be pretty amazing.”
“Yeah, it would.” He squirmed with memory. “But what’s the long answer?”
She lightly stroked his chest, fingertips tracing random patterns over his skin. “The long answer is that there’s more to it than that, now. I mean, since we’re back and things are sort of normal again, we’re not just…” she hummed quietly as she thought. “It’s not like we have the same reasons now. If it happened again, it would have to be something more, I dunno, planned or something, I guess.”
“What do you mean?”
She sighed quietly. “Thing is, all of this—aside from the you and me stuff—this was all kind of spontaneous and random. Your night with him, mine, yesterday. It all just sort of happened, and maybe that’s just how things were supposed to be with him. Just a little casual thing. Not something… ongoing.”
“But it’s not like he’s some random bloke we hooked up with. He’s our friend. We care about him. I do, at least.”
“Well, of course. And I know he cares about us, too. But it’s been a year. A lot has changed for all of us. We don’t really know him as well as we used to, and let’s face it, we didn’t know him all that intimately before, either.”
“Oh, I dunno, I got pretty intimate with him…” He grinned down at her.
She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I do. I think.” He petted her hair while he considered her words. “Our Becks isn’t exactly an open book, that’s for sure.”
“Right. And for all we know, maybe doing this again isn’t something he’d want. Maybe he feels more comfortable just keeping things friendly, and if we tried to go for more, it would make things weird.”
Weird. He suddenly got an uncomfortable echo of the way she had acted after their first kiss. “Is that what you want? To just keep things like that?”
Her breath hitched. “I… I don’t know.” She fidgeted. “Like I say, I loved it, but really, if nothing else ever happened with him, I’d be OK with it. I’m perfectly content to be with just you. I don’t need him or anyone else.”
He reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Same here.”
She returned the squeeze, then rolled over and stared at the ceiling. “But I admit that the idea of doing that again also does scare me a little, too.”
“How so?”
“Well, I’ve only just got used to the idea of us—of you and me. It’s not been that long. It still feels like it’s not quite real sometimes. I keep wondering whether it’s going to all go pear-shaped tomorrow.”
He turned, trying to catch her eye. “Abby, I’m not going—“
“No.” She cut him off with a gentle hand to his lips. “You don’t have to say it. It’s fine.” She turned back onto her side and smiled gently at him. “No, it’s just that something unexpected happened yesterday when we were with him. Maybe it was just me, I don’t know, and maybe this will sound strange…”
He squeezed her hand again, encouraging her to continue.
“But there was something else going on there besides just an amazing shag. For me, at least. When we came through that anomaly and he picked us up, it was like we were home in more ways than just that. Something just felt… right…about it. I thought for a while that it was just, y’know, being back and missing him. Or that it was just hormones or whatever. But it—being with him—it meant something to me.” She met his eyes. “You don’t have any reason to be jealous or anything. It’s not like it is with you. It’s different. But yes, I felt something for him, and if we did that again, I’d feel the same, and it might be stronger this time.”
“And that scares you?”
She nodded.
“Oh, Abby.” He reached for her, drawing her close, and was gratified to feel the tension leave her body. She didn’t have to explain any further—he got it. He didn’t know as much as he wanted to about her family history, but he knew enough to understand that she was wary of getting close to people—always afraid that they’d eventually leave.
Pulling back a little, he put a hand to her face, wiping away a small tear with his thumb. He smiled tenderly at her. “For what it’s worth, I felt the same way yesterday, and I’d been worried that I was the only one.”
She smiled, relieved. “Apparently not.”
“Nope! And I certainly feel a lot better for that.” He kissed her nose. “But I guess we need to decide what we do about it now. I’ll be honest: I would definitely like more, if we could. The sex part, of course, and…well. I don’t know what else. Just something beyond that. Though, I’m not even sure what that would be like. Dating or something? I don’t know. All of this is pretty new to me in general, so… yeah.”
“Yeah. This is definitely slightly odd, whatever it is. Or would be.” She nibbled on her lip.
“Honestly, it’s up to you. And him, of course.” He flashed a quick grin. “I can go either way. Whatever you want—whatever you’re comfortable with—even if that means yesterday was the one and only time for that.”
“Thank you. That really means a lot to me.” She nestled close. “I think I just need to give it some more thought. Just take it easy and see how things go. See if I feel differently.”
“Sure. I’m perfectly fine with that.”
“It may be moot anyway.” She shrugged. “I mean, we don’t know how he feels, and asking about it would probably be awkward. If he really did just want it to be a one-time thing, that would make it all really uncomfortable for us, and what with the job and stuff, that wouldn’t be good.”
“Right. Definitely,” he agreed. “Though, on the other hand, trying to work with him if we still have all that tension? Might drive us both mad. And that wouldn’t be good, either. Be kind of dangerous to be tracking something deadly when we’re distracted by staring at his arse or something.” He winked at her.
“True.” She giggled a little. “Honestly, just having his arms around me today when he was checking my weapons stance? Thought I was about to fall over and die.”
He giggled himself. “Yeah, well. I thought I was going to die just watching that.” A surge ran through him as the memory came up.
“Mmmhm. And the way you squirm when he looks at you is quite interesting. You’re terrible at hiding when you’re aroused.” She dropped a kiss on his shoulder.
“Cheeky!” He protested.
“Just an observation,” she teased. “Animal behaviourist, you know.”
His eyes narrowed, and he smiled slyly. “So, what are you observing now then, hey?” He wormed closer to her, nudging against her hip with his growing erection.
She raised an eyebrow. “The mating habits of the Northern horny goat?”
He burst out with a slightly too-loud laugh, which was quickly swallowed up by a deep kiss. In just a few moments, they were entangled, caressing and petting sensitive places, trying to keep as quiet as they could to avoid Jess—puttering around in the bathroom on the other side of the wall—hearing them. Then, just as things started getting interesting, she stopped him.
“Dammit.”
“Huh?” He mumbled around a mouthful of nipple.
“We forgot to buy condoms today.”
“Oh. Right. Hell.” He grumbled. He listened carefully—Jess was in the still in the bathroom, so sneaking out to pilfer more of her stash was not an option.
Fortunately, he knew of plenty of other ways they could please each other, and shifted around, making his way down to get his face between her legs.
“When we do buy them, though?” She said thoughtfully, threading her hand in his hair as he began kissing her thighs. “We should get plenty. Just in case.”
He popped his head up, gazing at her in curious surprise. The smile she sported was unmistakable.
--End--