Dedicated to The SingingPterodactyl for her awesome meal idea that she didn't know she gave me.

"I give up," Connor mumbled under his breath to himself as he watched Abby chatting on her mobile in the corridor.

"Don't give up; it's never good to give up. What are you giving up on?"

Connor jumped in his surprise and whirled around to find Lester standing behind him. "I, er, nothing. Nothing important is all. Nothing work-related, I promise."

To his surprise, Lester didn't move on. Instead he nodded his head toward the corridor. "Is it about that girl over there?"

Connor nodded meekly, "Yeah. I was…" he hesitated and gave Lester a puzzled look. "Why am I telling you this?"

"Because I know what I'm doing. I've got myself a lovely wife, haven't I? Also, because I'm your boss and I asked you a question. When I ask you something, I demand an answer."

"Oh, right," Connor agreed, his brow furrowed as if he was trying to work something out. Then he shrugged and continued on. "See, it's just really hard to ask Abby out on a date, innit?"

"Can't say I've tried."

"Well trust me, it is. Takes days and days and days to work up the nerves to ask even once, and then every time you finally get it and you start to ask, her mobile rings, or your mobile rings, or there's an anomaly alert. Just doesn't work. And then in the time it takes to do that stuff… Presto! Courage magically gone."

"That does sound highly inconvenient."

"It really is," Connor nodded enthusiastically, surprised at how attentive Lester was being. Then again, Abby kept telling him that Lester was nice really. Maybe she was right. She usually was, she was like the Professor that way.

"You live with her, correct?"

"Aye.

"Can I make a suggestion? Of course I can; I'm in charge here. Why bother asking her?"

"Because," Connor explained as if trying to spell out the obvious for his boss, "Because I love her, don't I? I wanna take her out and win her over so she'll love me back."

"Oh, I didn't say not to do the date thing, just don't ask first. How do you arrange the chore of cooking? Take turns? One of you cooks, the other cleans? You each fend for your self?"

"I cook, Abby cleans. Supposed to fend for ourselves, but Abby said I always make too much mess and never clean it up, so my punishment each time is to have to cook for her the next day. But I prefer to cook than clean, so if I don't clean up then I just have permanent cooking duty and never have to clean up. I think she's caught on, but she likes me food."

"So tonight you make dinner a bit more romantic. When she comes home to eat you have soft music going, lights dimmed, candles out, flowers for her on the table, and all her favourite foods on her plate and dessert ready to be served. You've got her walking right into a date, no asking necessary."

Connor looked at the man with newfound admiration. "Lester, you're brilliant."

"I'll give her some overtime work to do, keep her out of your hair while you prepare."

"Thanks Lester!" Connor grinned.

"If you want a helpful suggestion, I'd strongly advice cleaning up the pots and pans before she arrives this time."

"Music, Lights, Candles, Flowers, Cleaning, got it, anything else?"

"Yes, work."

"What?"

"You've got two hours left, Connor, get back to work."

"Oh, right," Connor nodded as he scurried away to his lab.

Abby sighed with frustration as she finally pulled up to her flat after a long day at work. She was hungry and annoyed after being forced to stay at work for three extra hours to observe the mammoth because Lester was insisting that he'd heard it sneeze. Abby had done a thorough exam of the large beast, and found that there was nothing wrong. No cold, no fever, nothing, she'd probably just gotten a bit of dust in her nose, and yet Lester hadn't been convinced. Nobody, knew their animals like Abby did and it bothered her that he'd not believed her when she told him all was well.

She was feeling somewhat irate as she stormed up the steps, and she told herself that if Connor didn't have dinner ready and the place clean she was going to… well she'd think of something and it'd probably involve a lot of yelling.

To her relief, she could smell something cooking the moment she stepped through the front door, something delicious. She took a sniff and then grinned to herself. Lasagne! Her favourite!

Almost instantly her mood changed as she kicked off her shoes. "Con?" she called out. "I'm back! Dinner ready?"

She walked up the stairs and stood stock still for a moment. Connor was nowhere in sight, but the place was obviously done up for a date. The lights had been turned off in the living room, and there were candles lit all over the place. Her candles. A romantic cd was playing in quietly in the corner.

Abby was going to kill him. Here she was all tired and hungry and he had a date? Here? She already hated the girl and she hadn't even met her yet. When Connor had dumped Caroline she'd thought that finally he'd go back to his old ways of flirting with her, thought she'd even accept his advances this time, but he never had and she'd been hurt by it. There was no way she was going to sit back and watch him with some new woman, not here, not in her flat, and especially not today.

"Connor Maxwell Temple get your idiotic-butt down here this instant!" She yelled up to the loft.

Connor came running down the stairs in a tuxedo, his expression looked panicky and she thought he might even be on the verge of tears but she was too upset and angry to care.

"What the hell is all this, Connor?" she screamed at him and Connor's completely face crumpled and a couple tears escaped, but Abby didn't stop. "You think you can just set this place up for a date without asking me first?! You think you can take over the whole place? You think you can use my candles?"

"It-it was Lester's idea," Connor protested weakly.

"Well I'm not happy with either one of you today, so you can just take his idea and shove it!"

She flipped on the lights and stormed into the kitchen, leaving Connor standing dejectedly at the bottom of the staircase. The lasagne she'd smelled was sitting on top of the stove and she didn't care if he had prepared it for someone else, it was she that'd done the grocery shopping and she was perfectly in her right to cut into and take a piece, she almost convinced herself.

She grabbed herself a plate and some cutlery, slamming the drawer shut again as she did, and it was then that she noticed the bouquet of roses sitting wrapped still on the counter. She hesitated. She could see there was a card attached to them and part of her was curious, but the other part didn't want to know, didn't want the other girl to have a name because then Abby wouldn't be able to pretend she didn't exist.

Oh who was she kidding? She'd not be able to pretend the girl didn't exist when whoever it was showed up at their door in a few minutes anyways, as she was likely to do. She'd read the tag and then get her satisfaction by pulling the petals off and tossing them if she had to. She reached for the flowers and then froze at what she read.

Abby, I just want one chance to prove I'm more than an idiot. Be my date tonight? Love Connor.

It was Abby who felt like the idiot now.

"Connor?" Abby called upstairs half an hour later. He didn't answer so she climbed up to the loft to find him. She'd had a good cry to herself in her bedroom about how she'd probably ruined everything, and then scolded herself for giving up so easily. She'd put the flowers in a vase in the middle of the table, reheated the lasagne in the warming rack, and then showered and changed into her favourite first date dress: a flirty light blue number with white and black trim.

Connor, on the other hand, had changed back into his jeans and she found him lying on his bed, staring at his ceiling as though it were the most interesting thing on earth.

"Connor," she said again.

"It's alright, Abs. It was a stupid idea. I thought maybe it'd be a good one because it was Lester's and not mine, but yeah, he doesn't know you like I do. I should've known better, but you know me, always an idiot." He didn't look at her.

Abby winced. "Connor, I'm just joshing with you when I say that, you know. I don't really think you're an idiot."

Connor turned to look at her and his eyes widened a bit when he saw she was dressed up, but he didn't catch on and simply commented, "No, you're right to say it, Abs. It's true. I mess everything up."

"It was me that messed up this time, Con. I found the flowers. I didn't, I thought, I mean…"

Connor stared at her; Abby didn't normally have this much trouble getting out her thoughts. "You thought what, Abs?"

She sighed, "I didn't realise the date was meant for me. I thought you'd found another girl."

Connor's jaw dropped and no words came out for some time. That's why Abby'd been mad, because she didn't want him seeing someone else? Was it possible she liked him?

"Connor?"

He cleared his head with a vigorous shake. "No! No, Abby! No more girls, yeah? Just you. I wanted a date with you!"

"Could we still have it? Or did I ruin everything?"

"Definitely we can still have it," Connor's head switched from shaking to nodding and Abby had to refrain from giggling as he reminded her off the bobblehead on her dashboard.

"Good," she said with relief, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Dinner started quietly. Connor had insisted on Abby sitting while he served her the lasagne and a glass of apple juice (they were all out of champagne), but then when he sat across from her, the silence had become awkward, neither of them knowing what to say. It was their first date, but they couldn't treat it like an ordinary date where they used it to get to know each other, because they already did.

Instead of talking, they both concentrated on the food, trying to convince temselves that the food was just too good to talk and that's why the other was silent. They finished eating far too quickly and Connor sighed. This wasn't going at all as planned. Dinner was already done and they'd not said two words to each other. He excused himself and went to the kitchen to fetch dessert: cheesecake topped with blue-bell ice cream, which was a favourite of Abby's. He placed the dessert onto two small plates and gave himself a quick pep talk. This date just had to get better or Abby would think things were weird between them and that'd be it for his chances.

He walked back out and handed her the cheesecake. When she thanked him, he felt the awkwardness in her tone and blurted out, "Sorry, Abs! I thought it'd be funner!"

She looked at him. "Funner's not a word, Con."

"I don't care. The date I mean, I'm not so good at it, am I? I'm too nervous to even say anything, never had such an important date in me life."

Abby smiled then, her expression softening. She stood and came around the table and, to Connor's amazement, she sat herself sideways across him lap. Instantly his arm came to rest around her waist.

"Con, s'alright. I'm nervous too, yeah? This is a big step for us."

He started to relax. "Really?"

"Really. But Connor, thing is, you don't need to worry about this date. You can't give me a bad first impression, because I've already a good one. You don't have to win me over, because you've already won."

"So I can't lose you then?" he questioned. "No matter what I say?"

"Never," Abby promised.

Connor's face lit up and he grinned at her. "In that case, Abs, I do have something to say; well, it's just this: you already have figured out that I've fancied you for ages, I'm sure… but I think, Abs, it's more than that you know. I think I've fallen in love with you."

Abby's expression registered her surprise, but then she smiled back at him. "In that case, Connor, you won't mind if I do this."

When she kissed him, Connor thought he was died and gone straight to heaven.

"Well?" Lester asked the next day as Connor dropped some reports off on his desk. "Did it work?"

Connor grinned at him, "Was awkward at first, but in the end it worked like a charm. Taking her back out tomorrow night to somewhere well posh and super expensive. Don't suppose I could have a pay rise, do you?"