before Blanche's date

(Abigail POV)

Abigail awoke quietly in the Master's bed. She was awake, but she didn't feel like getting up, or at least not right away. Watching Leo's peaceful sleeping face was a pleasant activity. Seeing him so calm and serene had become a rare sight since the start of the show.

Leo had always been a stressed person. The absence of his parents when he was young no doubt had a lot to do with it. Abigail remembered that Leo was sick all the time until he was 6, and with his parents working over 80 hours a week, they didn't have the time to look after him. This had probably led Leo to have problems forming human relationships. It's a good thing he had a little brother and sister, otherwise she couldn't imagine how Leo would have turned out.

She'd known him since birth but hadn't really discovered him until she entered higher education. Before that, she'd only seen him once a year when he came with his parents. But on those occasions, they didn't really talk. The only knowledge she had of Leo at the time came from her conversations with Leo's mother, Agatha. There was a lot to be said for Agatha, but she knew very little about her sons and daughter.

Her image of her children was distorted by her own desires. She wanted to have a perfect, problem-free family where everything went smoothly. In a way, she succeeded. Agatha married a brilliant doctor. She had 3 children, all very intelligent and well educated, or in the case of Eric and Ines, still pursuing their studies. She has a large, beautiful home and adorable dogs and cats. A real bourgeois life, just as she had dreamed, or at least on paper.

If you looked closely, you'd soon notice that each member of the household had his or her own problems. The father was accused by his students of harassment or of covering up harassment. Agatha was burnt out, drowning in her patients' files. Ines had a string of toxic boyfriends. She also had problems with bulimia and depression. Eric was so emotionless; you'd have thought he was a machine. It was more as if he was pretending to have emotions than anything else.

As for Leo, he had virtually no social life. Locking himself away in his books and ideas. Oh, he'd be happy to discuss most subjects with you, but as soon as it got personal, he'd shut up like a stuck pig.

However, Abigail was confident he'd change. He'd already done it a few years ago and wouldn't have said a word. Now he at least had the motivation to get involved. Was it because of Daphne? Abigail didn't know. But one thing was certain: Leo wouldn't accept Daphne's elimination. And if that happened, Leo might do something stupid.

The problem was, she didn't know how to prevent Daphne from ending up eliminated. She didn't even know how the elimination system worked, other than to avoid going negative. But Daphne was only 2 VPs away, so it would be easy to lose them. She'd have to ask Nola if there was any risk of being eliminated otherwise. Hopefully not, even if she didn't believe it.

She was going to talk to her this afternoon. Besides, they'd all have to talk to each other as members of the harem. Then there was Eric's case, which in all honesty would be difficult to deal with.

Her reflections were interrupted by Leo's movements.

"Abigail? Did you sleep well? I've already been told I snore a bit, I hope it didn't bother you." Said Leo.

_'Adorable,' _thought Abigail. He was worried about her sleep. That was sweet.

"I slept well. Thanks for your concern. How about you? Are you up for your date with Blanche?" Abigail asked.

He'd need to be in shape considering what Blanche had planned for their dates. Abigail could only hope Leo would come back in one piece. She hadn't even tried to change Blanche's mind when she'd told her about her idea. The young doctor was far too stubborn for that.

"I'm ready. I'm going to take a shower and then I'll be right back," Leo said.

Abigail watched Leo get up and go into the bathroom to wash and dress. She hesitated for a moment to follow him but decided against it. The romantic shower would have to wait until next week. Leo was probably not ready for that.

She dressed in the clothes she'd worn yesterday, since this wasn't her room and she had nothing else to wear. She wasn't worried about Leo catching her naked. From what she could hear, he was in the shower and even if he saw her naked, it wouldn't be so bad.

Leo finally came out of the bathroom after a quarter of an hour. Did he always take so long to shower? she mused.

"Abigail about last night..." said Leo.

"It's okay, I'm not going to say I gave you a blowjob if that's what you want." Says Abigail.

"Thanks, but that wasn't really what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to thank you. I know I'm not up to the circumstances but I'm going to do my best to become one and help you all as best I can." Said Leo.

If only that were true. After all, one was always entitled to dream. Abigail thought.

Leo and Abigail took the elevator down. Abigail did her best to try and memorize the route, which would undoubtedly prove useful. However, she soon lost track of all the corridors and doors. It must be said that orientation wasn't her strong point, and talking to Leo at the same time made the task a daunting one.

They were obviously the last to arrive at the breakfast table. Abigail looked at each of the participants one by one. Eric was chatting with Blanche. He was probably talking about Leo and the upcoming date because they stopped as soon as they saw us. As for Jessica, she was yelling at Hanna or maybe just asking her to pass the jam jar. It was hard to tell the difference with her.

So far, everything was pretty normal. What caught his and Leo's attention was that Daphne seemed pensive. She was clutching her knife but not using it to slice the piece of bread in front of her. She was so lost in thought that she must have forgotten what she was doing.

"Daphne, are you ok ? Please tell me you haven't been punished again" Leo asked.

Daphne seemed to snap out of it when she heard Leo. It seemed to be difficult for Leo not to focus on Daphne when she was present.

"I'm fine Leo and no I didn't get any extra punishment." Daphne replied.

"Thanks for worrying about us Leo. We slept well." Blanche said sarcastically.

She had a point. Leo really needed to focus on someone other than Daphne.

"Sorry, Blanche. You're right I should pay more attention to you. I know I don't treat you all the same and I'm sorry for that." Leo said.

Abigail couldn't help noticing that Leo hadn't promised to pay more attention to each of her.

_"That's good, Leo! Now if you don't mind, we'll be off." _Blanche said.

_"Perfect, finally, the last date of the week" _said Nola, who had just appeared, surprising everyone present.

"Here's the door. And Blanche is trying to bring it back in one piece. We still need it." said Nola.

Blanche grabbed Leo by the arm, who couldn't help asking a question before walking through the door.

"What do you mean 'bring him back whole'?" said Leo before disappearing.

"Courage, Leo," murmured Abigail.