AN: This is the first fic I ever wrote, so please bear with me, heh. I wrote it a while ago when Abby and Carter were still just friends. Even though I know what happens down the road, I'm still a Carby fan and decided to post this after all. So please read and review, even if you hated it 

Summary: Carter and Abby are still having trouble with confessing their true feelings and giving it a try.

Disclaimer: I don't know anyone even remotely related to ER personally and I don't own any of these characters. The songs mentioned in this fic are credited below.

Only you

Chapter one: Songs and Italian places

Abby looked at her watch one last time before she ran out of the kitchen. My god, she was soooo late! It was 8.50 already and her shift started at nine. She grabbed her car keys from the table and ran outside. Ten minutes left to get to County or Kerry was going to have a fit again. She'd been late a lot lately, sleepless nights were the cause of that. Tossing and turning, thinking things she shouldn't be thinking.

She got outside and pulled on her coat, it was freezing like hell. She loved snow, but not when she was late and it was all over her car. She turned her key in the ignition and drove away. When was Carter on? She couldn't remember but she hoped he'd had the night shift. She didn't want to avoid him really, but he was the main reason she stayed awake at night. She often wondered how they had let it come this far. It was mostly her fault, she knew now that John was right when he'd told her she wasn't over Luka yet. She wasn't then...but she definitely was now. The problem was they seemed to be stuck. And she had no idea how to fix it, she was scared. Hell, at least she was admitting to herself that she was atrracted to him, she'd told him how she felt.

She parked her car and walked to the ambulance bay. She prayed that it would be a calm day. She could use one for a change. They had been swamped, since two other hospitals were closed for the week. She walked in and saw Susan lazily filling in a patients chart. She saw Abby and smiled, walking with her into the lounge.

"Hey, I didn't think you'd be here already. You were here when I left last night." Abby asked, slightly curious.

Susan sighed and gave her a tired look. "I know, but I had to stick around for the shift change because Chen called in sick. She has the flu, which everyone's been getting lately. You get a cold and then you just automatically get the flu. Which means I've been here for about 20 hours and I've been dying to get some sleep."

"Well, if I were you I'd go home. Kerry's not here yet anyway and I think Luka is on in about an hour.

"No, Luka has the night shift I think, but Carter's on at eleven."

Abby pulled a face. So much for good luck, she mumbled. Susan saw her face and she started laughing.

"You two are very comical, you know that? Walking around the hospital like nothing is going on, while everyone working here is just watching you two every day, it's like the goddamn Young and the Restless!"

"Ugh, well maybe instead of watching and gossiping about us you could actually work", Abby grinned. "In the meantime, I have some patients I need to go and take care of. See ya later Susan".

Before Susan could say something else, Abby walked out and went to the board. Too many patients, she thought to herself. As she walked in to curtain 3 she was thinking about tonight. She was gonna go to a meeting. As much as she wanted to make herself believe that she had everything under control, she had to get rid of it. Everything, let it all out. John was right that night outside the Lava Lounge. The last time that she'd gone to one had been too long ago. But now she was determined, there was a meeting at five, she was off at four. It was perfect.

Here comes Johnny singing oldies-goldies

Be bop a lua, baby what I say

Here comes Johnny singing I gotta woman

Down in the tunnels trying to make it pay

He got the action, he got the motion

Oh yea, the boy can play

Dedication, devotion, turning all the night time into the day

He do the song about the sweet lovin' woman
He do the song about the knife
He do the walk, he do the walk of life

Abby couldn't remember when she had last heard this song. It was years ago, when she and her brother had been taking care of Maggie together. Eric was a fan of the Dire Straits and it used to annoy her that he always listened to their cd's when they were together. Now it just made her smile, as much as she hated the times that Maggie went crazy on them, she couldn't ever go back to the time when Eric and her had been inseperable.

She went to the lounge to get a cup of coffee and saw Carter who had apparently just arrived and was getting ready. He smiled when he saw her and she couldn't help but smile back. God, she loved it when he looked at her like that.

"Hey Abby, how you been?"

"Fine I guess, just been having a little trouble sleeping lately, but other than that it's all good"

"Why haven't you been sleeping well? You should try to relax half an hour before you go to sleep. Just watch tv or take a long hot bath or something, that always works for me"

"Yea maybe, I don't know why I can't sleep though." Like she was gonna tell him that he was haunting her mind day and night and that was the reason of her insomnia.

"Anyway, I'm off at six, what do you say we grab a cup of coffee? It's been awhile since we've talked and all."

She felt her stomach twitch. Stop it, she silently scolded at it. "Ummmm I can't, I have...other obligations."

"Like what?"

Figures he'd ask, way to go Abby. "I was thinking of going to a meeting at five"

She looked to see his expression. She wasn't really sure what he was thinking, she saw surprise and... was that relief?

"Well that's good, I'm glad you decided to go to a meeting. So how about dinner then? Have you tried that new Italian place yet, a couple of blocks down? I could buy you dinner."

Italian sounded good, she loved Italian food and he obviously knew that. So just say it, say you'd love to go!

"Yea I'll think about it, let me get back to you on that". Great, she frowned. "I gotta get back to work now, so I'll talk to you later".

She grabbed her coffee and was about to leave when he asked her:

"What made you decide to go to a meeting after all?" She turned to look at him. "I thought you didn't feel like it at all, why go now?"

She looked into his eyes and saw the questioning look. She sighed and said: "Because you would like it if I went" and then she walked out, leaving him alone in the lounge.

( song: Walk of life by Dire Straits)