Connor watched Abby curiously out of the corner of his eye as he sat pretending to read on the window seat. It was unlike her to spend much time on the laptop but she hadn't looked away from it in the past three hours. Finally curiosity got the better of him and he could no longer hold back the question. "Whatcha doing on there anyways, Abs?"

Abby looked up at him as if suddenly remembering that he was still in the room and then blushed, "Nothing."

"Yeah, right," he retorted sarcastically. "You're concentrating way too hard for 'nothing'."

She sighed and shut the lid of the laptop, her focus completely on him now, studying him as if to decide if she wanted to tell him or not. He stared back at her with what he hoped was his best, 'We're pals, you can tell me anything' expression, whatever that looked like.

Finally she shrugged and chuckled at him, "Fine, if you must know, I was setting up an online dating profile. Figured it's been years and maybe it's time I got back into the scene, you know."

Connor blanched at the thought of Abby dating, but knew that he couldn't stop her so he summoned every ounce of strength he had to keep his emotions in check and respond, "Oh… have-have you met anyone on the site yet?"

To his relief, Abby shook her head. "I haven't even submitted the profile yet, I'm just, you know, deciding what to put, picking a username and all that. I think I wanna be a bit anonymous at first; I don't need some creep being able to look me up in the phone book based on the info there. I'll get to know someone before telling them anything real personal."

Connor nodded, "Yeah, yeah safe is good. In fact…"

Abby noticed his hesitation and prompted him to continue, "In fact, what, Connor…"

"Well it's just, Abs, I'm not so sure I like this whole idea, but maybe I can help. It's just, well I'm not trying to be mean here Abby, but you've told me about your past and maybe some of the guys you dated before weren't all that great, and maybe, no offence and I'm just saying it cuz I care about you, but maybe your judgement of dating material isn't all that good. Sorry. So I guess what I mean is, maybe I should help you and make sure you represent yourself right and if you start to get a bit serious with someone maybe I should screen the messages and hack into their files before you actually meet them in person, eh? Because if you're gonna do this, I don't want to see you settle for anyone less than you deserve, Abs. I couldn't let you go through some of that stuff again."

He stopped rambling and nervously picked at his fingerless gloves as he waited for her reply. To his surprise she came and sat beside him, giving him a peck on the cheek. "Connor, that'd be fantastic," she told him sincerely. "Thank-you."

USERNAME: SkyBlueLizard
Age: 28
Job: Classified
Likes: Lizards, Kickboxing, Reading, Dancing
Looking for: Caring man within a few years of my age who likes animals. Someone who has a lot of flexibility and patience when it comes to their partner having to work odd hours at times.

That's how Abby's profile read when Connor looked over it. It didn't look like three hours worth of work to him; there was barely anything there. She hadn't even put up a photograph. When he questioned her on it, she replied that she'd spent most her time deciding which site to join and making up the username. She also said she didn't want to put up photo. She wanted to find someone who liked her for who she was, not what she looked like.

Connor knew that without a photo and with so little information, she wouldn't get nearly as many serious message requests, but he didn't push the matter. If anything he was relieved. He didn't really want her to find anyone anyways, now did he? So if her profile looked a wee bit boring, he was happy.

"It's good, Abs," he agreed, and she'd finally saved it.

Boring or not, the messages started coming in from guys who were obviously desperate. Abby read most of them out to Connor and he was relieved that she was willing to share them.

To start with, no one really interested her. Some of them were downright creepy and others were obviously meant to be jokes, people trolling on the internet. A few of them seemed too good to be true to the point that there was no doubt they originated in Nigeria. 'I am the fourth heir of president who died and I have larges amounts of money to give to pretty girl who will marry me.'

Abby giggled as she wrapped the bedsheet she was folding around her body, pretending it was a wedding dress and Connor tossed her some flowers from the bouquet on the table. "Abby," he asked in mock seriousness. "Do you take the president's heir to be your husband?"

"If he's got the money, I do!"

They both laughed as Abby tossed the sheet back in the laundry basket.

Amidst the fun and games there was one guy, one guy that sounded normal, friendly, likeable, and pretty altogether great. Connor felt like his heart stopped beating when he saw the flutter of hope in Abby's eyes as she read the message and proclaimed with a shrug, "Well, this one might not be too bad."

Connor leaned over her shoulder, dreading the fact that Abby may have just stumbled across her Mr. Right. But then as he read the profile he sighed with relief. The guy actually sounded perfect but there was the one tiny flaw. "Sorry, Abs," he pointed out, "But it says he's a vet. Anyone with a medical degree specializing in animals will be asking way too many questions about Rex don't you think?"

"True," Abby agreed and deleted the message.

But despite his relief, Connor felt like he was counting down before everything between himself and Abby changed, and not for the better.

The messages kept coming, but after a couple of weeks Abby stopped reading them to Connor and started just deleting them. When he questioned her she shrugged and replied, "Because I'm bored, Connor. You can't seriously still be entertained by my junk mail folder, can you? If anything good turns up, I'll let you know."

But as time passed and all the messages continued to follow along the same lines, Connor noticed that her boredom turn to frustration and sadness. She wasn't upset that she hadn't found anyone yet, but she was upset that no one was interested in her. Connor knew that Abby was already very self-depreciating at times, and he hated watching it get her down.

He didn't really want to see her dating anyone, but he absolutely hated seeing her depressed, so he finally decided to try and help her again.

"Abs, are you sure you don't want to add a photo. You're really fit you know. You'll attract a lot of attention."

"I'm already getting attention, Con. It's just the wrong sort and a photo will just make it worse."

"Well, why don't you try browsing the site yourself, seeing if there's any profiles that you do like and then sending the first message."

Abby shrugged, but Connor could see she was thinking about that. Finally she opened the search page and typed in her desired age range, but hesitated before filling out the rest. "Likes… I want him, for example, to like animals, Con, but what if he likes animals but just didn't think to put that on his profile, you know? Maybe I shouldn't be specific or I might miss out on someone?"

Connor shook his head. "No, Abs, you deserve the best. Be very specific because maybe you just might find the perfect guy. And if you don't, then you can start removing the interests one by one and re-searching until you find someone with the most qualities that you want."

Abby nodded and started typing, filling in as much detail as she could about her perfect man while Connor moved around the kitchen putting away the dishes. He had been on dish duty for the last three days after accidentally leaving Abby's best scarf in the freezer one night.

"Well," Abby said after awhile, "No results."

"So now start removing the things that are the least important to you one at a time."

She nodded but stood up. "Maybe tomorrow. I'm a bit too tired to decide what's the least important; I'm going to bed."

"Can I try looking for you, Abs?"

She shrugged, "Sure, but don't stay up too late. Never know when we'll have a midnight anomaly."

Connor did a quick scan of traits Abby had put were important to her so he knew what he was looking for. And then he did a longer read. Finally, in shock, he broke down every single thing she'd filled in as it sunk in that she'd just described him.

Prefers dark hair, brown eyes.
Older by a year or two. Taller.
Personality: Caring, Honest, Loyal, Geeky, Quirky, Supportive, Funny.
Likes: Animals, Movie Nights, Video Games, Cuddling, Cooking, Jokes.

He glanced at her closed bedroom door and whispered, "What the hell, Abby? Whatever happened to us staying best pals because I'm really not your type?"

He hesitated and then decided to show Abby exactly what was what. Leaving her computer where it was on the kitchen table he retreated to the loft and fetched his own. Typing quickly he made an anonymous profile of his own, being careful not to write anything that would give away his true identity but one that would check off most her boxes. Then he looked her up and sent off a message.