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They found Abby's assigned bunk and unloaded her stuff then went in search of coffee at the cafeteria, trying to kill time until their scheduled appointments. The got their coffee and a couple of donuts, because if nothing else at the facility, the cafeteria was well varied and stocked. As they headed for a table he teased her, "So what's with this new look of yours, Abs? You look like you raided your brother's closet."
She very playfully and maturely stuck her tongue out at him in response, "I'm not giving the ogre any help. If he wants to undress me with his eyes, he's gonna have to work for it. Besides what exactly are you wearing?"
He shrugged, "Same thought I guess, I don't want to worry about someone being attracted to my Armani rather than me." He sipped his coffee and asked gently, "So an ogre huh?"
Abby hadn't told anyone the details about her first experience at the facility. She would just say that it had been horrible, but she wouldn't share anything else about it. Tony always suspected that something not quite right had gone on but she never said. It had taken her weeks to get back to her normal perky self the last time, and Tony had personally wanted to pummel the moron she had been isolated with for making her so miserable.
Abby looked down at her donut and sighed, "Yeah. I really don't want to see him again, Tony. He's a jerk. And a touchy-feely jerk at that." She picked up her donut and bit into it viciously.
All of Tony's creep senses started tingling at her words. Did this guy put his unwelcome hands on Abby? Did he try to force her? Participants in isolation were permitted to have consensual sex, and even encouraged to do so as part of the getting to know one another process, but the emphasis was on consensual. Tony had heard a couple of rumors about women being forced, but there were supposed to be safeguards in place to prevent that in the form of the observers. If this this slimeball hurt Abby, Tony was personally going to kill him with his bare hands. He was seeing so red at the thought that he didn't realize his hands were balled into fists on the table.
Abby saw his reaction and realized where his mind must have gone. She placed a gentle hand on his, "Tony, he didn't...he just kept wanting to hug me and rub my shoulders and stuff. It was just creepy."
His eyes met hers and the red haze fell away, he turned his hand over under hers and squeezed, "I'll keep the ogres away, Abs, I promise."
Her eyes twinkled with humor, "My knight in shining armor."
He looked down at his holey sweatshirt, "The armor's looking a little threadbare today."
She closed her eyes dramatically and teased, "I'm picturing you in Armani in my mind."
They both laughed and went back to their donuts, but the observers noted that they never let go of each other's hands.
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They made their way back to the main lounge as their appointment times grew close. They found a little couch and sat side by side, Abby laying her head on Tony's shoulder as they waited.
Tony's meeting was called first and he left a forlorn Abby alone on the couch. The meeting went quickly, he hadn't had any major lifestyle changes or epiphanies in the past six months since his last stint at the facility. As he made his way back to the lounge area he heard Abby's raised voice, "Can't you take a hint? I'm not interested. Now go away and just leave me alone."
Tony rounded the corner to see Abby almost backed up against a wall with what had to to be one of the most disgusting men Tony had ever seen encroaching her personal space. Heavyset with long, greasy, unwashed hair Tony could smell the man halfway down the hallway. His food stained t-shirt and sweatpants were so dirty they could almost stand up on their own. The man was just a pig. Actually Abby had aptly named him, an ogre. And the ogre was whining to Abby and reaching his filthy hands out to touch her, "Oh, come on, I know you've missed me in the last nine months. Gimme a hug and we'll go tell them to hook us up again."
"Keep your hands to yourself if you know what's good for you." Tony said coming up behind the ogre, "She said she's not interested."
The man turned around to see a furious Tony looming over him by a foot with blood in his eye but he didn't back down, "Screw you, we're all equal in here. I can talk to whoever I want, pretty boy."
Tony took a step forward, close enough for the man to feel the heat from Tony's anger, but not touching him, and spat out, "I am federal agent, and I am telling you right now that if you lay so much as a finger on her I will arrest you for assault."
The ogre tried to sputter out something about Tony not having jurisdiction in the facility, to which Tony rattled off all of the national and international codes that governed the facility, which included the fact that as a federal agent he maintained his arrest privileges. By the time he was done with his rant, the ogre was visibly pale with an expression of pure terror on his face. Tony ended the situation by saying, "You will leave her alone. Because if you don't you will have to deal with me. And I'm a lot like the David Banner, you really won't like me when I'm angry. Got it?" And with that he stepped between the ogre and Abby and putting his arm around her shoulder protectively, led her away from the ogre.
Abby was floored, completely floored. She knew Tony was a good cop, a good agent, but the rant with all the legal jargon was something else. She also knew that he loved and treated women with tenderness and caring. But she had never seen this protective side of him. And the idea that he would be so protective of her sort of confused her. Because for a second it felt not like he was protecting her as a friend, but protecting her like she was his, like he would a lover. And the way he put his arm around her and got her out of there was certainly possessive.
As soon as they were away from the crowd that had formed, Tony stopped and turned to face her. He rubbed her upper arms and asked gently, "You okay?"
"Yeah. I think so."
He squinted at her as if trying to determine if she was telling him the truth or not. "The ogre I presume?"
She looked down and signed, then replied in a little broken voice, "Yeah."
He pulled her into a hug that she melted into, "I'm so sorry, Abs. Nobody should ever have to be isolated with that thing."
They stood there for a long moment, ignoring the looks they were getting from passersby in the corridor. She squeezed him harder and said very softly into his shoulder, "I could get used this."
He caught what she said but wanted to be sure, "What did you say, I missed it."
She pulled back and shook her head, "Nothing. It was nothing."
He gave her the look that said he didn't believe her but didn't press. "C'mon let's go have ice cream for lunch."
She smiled and nodded and they walked to the cafeteria shoulder to shoulder. And the dutiful monitors had documented every scrap of the incident.
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tbc...
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