Author's Note: Hello, Primeval fandom, I am back! I haven't watched this show for a few years so my canon's a little rusty, but it doesn't really matter in this case. I had this idea shortly after writing my first Primeval fic, but I never wrote it until now. So have fun! :)

Real Monsters Come in Boxes

Connor dimmed the lights in the flat and sat down to wait on the sofa. He listened as the shower cut out, the weight of the little box with the ring in it heavy in his pocket. Abby poked her head around the door a few minutes later, hair still dripping, and took in the dimmed lights.

"Oh. We having pizza?" she asked.

Caught totally off guard, Connor spluttered, "What? Oh – yeah. Yeah, pizza. I'll make the call." He smiled slightly desperately at her.

"Great!" Abby said, seeming not to notice his nervousness. She disappeared from view again. "Get us Doritos and some dipping sauces while you're at it," she called.

"Okay! Pizza, pizza..." he muttered to himself as he found the number on his mobile phone and placed the order.

They ate the pizza in front of the telly. Connor was finding it difficult to concentrate on the taste of the cheese or the ham or the peppers. Rex nearly stole one of his slices, his mind was so preoccupied.

After the pizza, Abby announced, "Hey, let's watch a film. I have just the one."

"Okay, yeah," Connor found himself saying. "I'll get the snacks."

While Abby was getting her DVD, Connor was having a minor breakdown over dipping sauces in the kitchen. "Oh, why can't I just ask her?" he lamented. Then he had an idea. It was one of his brilliant, spur-of-the-moment ideas.

Abby put Titanic on for them. Rex settled to watch on the armrest. They shared the Doritos, and Connor watched closely every time Abby dipped hers into one of the sauces.

By the end of the film Abby was giving Connor bemused sidelong glances. She hadn't shed a tear, but Connor was weeping because he'd forgotten which sauce he'd put the ring in.

Connor had another idea a few days later. Another of his brilliant, spur-of-the-moment ideas.

He waited until Abby had gone to bed before slipping the ring in with Sid and Nancy's food. In the morning when she went to feed them, she'd see the silver glinting and pluck the ring out. She'd probably be lost for words for a moment, then shout his name and he'd come running, acting all innocent. It would be perfect.

With a grin he slipped into bed beside her and went to sleep.

He felt her get out of bed before him but he kept his eyes closed and feigned sleep. He waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

"Connor, you lazy arse, are you still asleep? We've got to be at work soon!" Abby shouted from somewhere else in the flat.

He opened one eye. She didn't exactly sound like she'd found an engagement ring.

"Connor – get up!"

"I'm up, I'm up..." he grumbled loud enough for her to hear.

He went to see if Abby hadn't fed Sid and Nancy yet, but the bowl with their food in it was empty.

Connor found Abby munching away at a slice of toast with jam in the kitchen. "Morning," she said.

"You didn't find anything in Sid and Nancy's food did you?" he asked.

She gave him a blank look. "Like what?"

"Nothing," he said, pouring himself a glass of orange juice while Abby squinted suspiciously at him but didn't say a word.

That was the same morning that Connor came down with a mysterious illness that meant he couldn't attend work for a few days. That's how long it took him to find the ring in the Diictodon poo anyway.

In the end it didn't require a (questionably) brilliant spur-of-the-moment idea. He simply had to ask.

Connor and Abby were backed up against a wall, outnumbered five-to-one by raptors. She was firing; he was attempting to aim in the general direction of the raptor he was trying to shoot.

He took a deep breath. No time like the present.

"Abby," he shouted over the din of stunned raptor bodies hitting the ground, "will you marry me sometime?"

Between shots, Abby shrugged, "Sure – why not?"

The End