Most of the time, Connor rather liked Jenny: he respected her, thought she was a good leader and probably even a good friend. This, however, was not one of those times. He felt his fists clenching at his sides as he glared at her and willed her to just shut up, but Jenny didn't seem to sense his anger towards her as she chattered on about the family vacation Lester was letting her take next week.

It was just after noon and the team was in the staff room. Jenny was sat at a table with Lorraine and Abby, Nick was fetching his lunch from the fridge, and Connor was standing at the counter waiting for the kettle to boil. It wasn't the fact that Jenny was going on vacation that bothered Connor so much, nor even the fact that she was unintentionally bragging about it. He knew she was just excited.

It was the way she kept on in detail about her little speech to Lester, the one that had finally made him give her the time off. Apparently Jenny'd memorised what she'd wanted to say the night before, throwing in tidbits about how important family was, how much her parents had done for her as a child and how she owed it to them to spend time with them still now that she was an adult, how she missed them like crazy, how she hadn't seen her brother in six months, etc, etc, etc.

She'd succeeded in winning Lester over to her side, but Connor couldn't care less. The more she went on about family, the angrier he became. He tried to tell himself that Jenny didn't know what she was doing, but the only thing that was registering was the way Abby's shoulders were slumped and the way she'd been uncomfortably staring into her bowl of soup for the last five minutes.

He'd tried to change the subject a couple of times, but it'd somehow gone right back each time. She was relating some anecdotes from previous vacations when Cutter laughed and said it reminded him of something that'd happened on one of his family vacations once and launched into that story. Connor could've killed him. Did no one else notice that Abby was upset?

Connor knew he shouldn't do it, that he had no right to touch her, but as squeezed behind the back of her chair and the counter, hot cocoa in hand, to reach the empty seat beside Abby, he gave her a quick reassuring squeeze on her shoulder. Abby finally looked up from her soup and gave him a weak smile, before seeming to snap out of her thoughts a little bit. She straightened her shoulders and ate a spoonful of soup while giving a little chuckle at Nick's story and then asked him for more details. Connor wasn't fooled though; the light in her eyes was still missing.

"So what about you, Abs? What was your favourite family vacation?" Lorraine asked, quite efficiently adding herself to Connor's mental list of people he wanted to punch.

"Camping, we went every year," Abby responded quickly. Too quickly, Connor thought. Surely the others would notice the way she fiddled with her beaded bracelet and know she was lying. Despite how angry he was feeling at the moment, there was a tiny flash of pleasure and pride that ran through him because it was, after all, the bracelet that he'd given her last Christmas and he did rather love the fact that she never seemed to take it off. She'd even kissed his cheek when she'd unwrapped it.

"Oh! Camping is the best!" Jenny eagerly agreed, "Did you have an RV or a tent?"

"Tent," Abby responded quickly, flashing the group a smile before standing and excusing herself. She mentioned something about wanting to make a phone call and ducked out of the room.

Connor didn't stay either. He gave her a few minutes, just in case the phone call story was true, and poured out her soup, washing the bowl she'd left behind before heading off to find her. He tried her lab first, and when he found that she wasn't there he headed towards the ladies' toilets. He knocked tentatively and when there was no reply he hesitantly poked his head around the corner. "Abs?"

"Go away, Connor," the reply came immediately from the far stall.

Connor entered quickly and locked the door behind himself. "Abs, please come out," he begged her. "It's just me as is here and I've locked the door."

He actually expected her to refuse and was debating with himself as to whether or not crawling under the stall door was a good idea, but the door suddenly opened and before he could react he found a sobbing Abby clutching at his chest. Instinctively he wrapped his arms around her, wondering vaguely if she'd always been so tiny. It was five minutes before either of them said anything; Abby was crying to hard and Connor didn't know what to say.

Finally Abby wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and pushed back from him just enough that she could see his face and offer him a weak smile. "Connor, you shouldn't be in here."

"Sure I should, I should always be with you when you're upset, even if it is in a ladies' toilet."

Abby buried her face into his chest again for a moment but Connor didn't think she was upset or crying this time. It was more like she just needed to hide for a moment as she composed herself and he let her. When she looked back at him she was shaking her head and her eyes were shining again, partly with laughter. "You weren't even supposed to know I was upset, Con. You know me too well."

Connor watched her in silence, not sure how to respond to that and, now that it seemed she didn't need to be comforted anymore, suddenly realising just how close they were. His hands had somehow come to rest on her hips when she'd pulled back a bit and she wasn't at all trying to push him away. "Abby," he whispered and then stopped.

"I know," she whispered back. "Connor, wanna know something weird?"

He nodded encouragingly and she continued. "What's weird is that it doesn't bother me, doesn't scare me, that you know me that well. In fact, it's oddly comforting."

Connor pressed his forehead against hers seriously, pushing aside his joy at that comment for another time, "Abby, tell me why the conversation was upsetting you so much."

"You already know that, Connor."

"I can guess, Abs, I know your family life wasn't good but I meant more specifically."

He heard Abby sigh and he wondered if she might actually tell him something for once rather than just the vague hints she usually gave when he asked about her family. To hs disappointment, they were suddenly interrupted by a loud banging on the door.

Abby pulled away from him quickly, "C'mon, Con, you really aren't supposed to be in here and I think someone needs the toilets."

"Abby..." Connor said, standing still, routed the ground.

Abby hesitated and then slipped her hand into his, "Not here." She tugged at his hand and this time Connor followed her, with the intentions of not letting go of her until she talked.

As they stepped out of the bathroom, the lab tech on the other side of the door darted inside, stopping just long enough to eye Connor and give Abby an amused smirk, which was quickly wiped from her face by the glare of death that Abby gave her in return. Connor felt a bit smug about the fact that he wasn't the only one Abby could scare with just a look.

"Where're we going, Abs?" he asked as soon as they were out of earshot. He walked close to her so that his entire arm was pressed against hers and she seemed to be leaning on him a little bit.

"Lester's office."

"What?" Connor halted in his tracks, forcing Abby to stop too. "Abby?"

"Only room without cameras and I don't want anyone watching to see that I'm in a bad mood."

"Okay, but how're you gonna get rid of the boss?"

"He's at a meeting with the minister today,remember?"

"Right," Connor said, letting her lead the way again and wondering how she was planning on getting in.

To his surprise, the door wasn't locked. Connor frowned. "Does Lester always leave his office open?"

Abby nodded, "He keeps any personal items locked up in cabinets, but it's always open in case we need access for whatever reason."

"Abby, how do you know this stuff?"

Abby grinned, "Okay it's supposed to be top secret, but it's where he hides the treats for the mammoth and I'm expected to make sure he gets one daily if Lester's not around for some reason."

Connor raised an eyebrow, "You'd think that after the creatures and the anomalies, I'd have lost the ability to be surprised by things like this... but apparently that's not the case."

Abby giggled as she led him to the black leather sofa in the corner of the office. She gestured for Connor to sit and then plopped herself down beside him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Okay," she said, "There isn't really much to tell Con. I can't describe for you a horrible family vacation that made me hate such things, because I've never had a family vacation. We never did any of the things that families are supposed to do together. When I was growing up, the term family vacation meant you got to take a vacation from your family, and trust me, that was always a joyous occasion. I remember when my friends went on vacations, I was always so jealous. They'd go on about it all excited like, and Jenny just brought up that feeling again. I wanted so badly for my dad to tell me he wanted to take us somewhere special, they wanted to spend time with us, but the truth was that they didn't. We were nothing but a nuisance to them and they avoided us whenever possible. Looking back on it, I should be glad we never went on a trip together. It would've been a disaster spending all that time together. There was enough yelling and fighting as it was. My dad was better than my mum at least. He ignored us completely, he told me to keep my brother out of his hair and he'd stay out of mine, like that was a good deal or something, but I didn't want him to ignore me. Secretly I craved his attention more than anything. My mum though, she used to threaten me, she'd intentionally hurt me. I remember her offering to brush my hair once when I was about seven and she purposely ripped out big chunks of it by the roots. I was screaming and Jack was cowering in the corner. My dad was watching tv and ignoring us all. She hit me all the time, she'd bathe me in scalding hot water and if it wasn't that it was icy cold. I was actually scared of her and every night I'd go to bed hoping that my dad would notice and help me, but he never did. She finally left us when I was thirteen and I continued to raise Jack on my own while dad ignored us both. Family vacations, ha! I was lucky if he'd remember I existed long enough to give me money for groceries, let alone offer to take a trip with us."

Connor silently kissed Abby's hair when she stopped talking. When she looked up at him, he kissed her lips too. He didn't really mean to, but he wanted to offer her so much more comfort than he knew how to express in words or any other way and he was emotional enough it just happened. Abby seemed to understand because she didn't punch his lights out. Instead she smiled at him and cuddled further into his side. "Thanks," she said. If it wasn't for the emotion of the moment, Connor would have laughed at the fact that Abby was thanking him for kissing her.

"Abs," he ventured hesitantly after a few moments of silence, an idea forming suddenly, "What about Rex?"

Abby looked at Connor, puzzlement on her face. "What about him?"

"Well, we don't want him to go through that, do we? I mean, I know you'd never hurt him, but we wouldn't want poor Rex to think his parents didn't love him, yeah? What about me and you take Rex on our own family vacation?"

He knew that Abby would read between the lines, that she'd understand what he was really asking: Whether she could consider him family, whether he could give her what she so badly needed, but he phrased it the way he did to make it easier for her to answer either way. She could tell him the idea was dumb without hurting him, because they both knew that it was silly to think Rex needed a vacation, or she could accept it and be safe because he hadn't really asked her to commit to anything yet, just a baby step, for Rex's sake.

He could see the wheels turning in her head and then her face lit up with a smile and she nodded eagerly, "I'd like that, a lot. Of course it'll take some research to find a place safe and private enough for Rex to join us that will still be relaxing and fun, but you'll come up with something."

"Me?" Connor asked, relieved that she'd agreed but knowing better than to let on how he was feeling just yet.

"Sure, it was your idea. I don't really mind where we go, I just have one request."

"What's that?"

Abby grinned at him,"For once, I want to be the one coming back bragging. Our family vacation is gotta be way better than Jenny's."

And with that she quickly kissed his cheek and excused herself from the room, calling over her shoulder for him to let her know what he came up with so she could pack.