Author's Note: This is a stand-alone, an alternate ending for Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic.
Disclaimer: I'm not John Wells. Never will be.
Timeline: Season eight, end of Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic (8x03) But Susan is already there, let's say since 8x01.
Summary: What if Carter and Abby didn't go home after the aquatic mischief but went both their own way in the city and met each other late in the evening on a playground?
Extra: This was a fanfic challenge: write a story between 1000 and 2000 words about Carter and Abby with the following items: a fish, a swing, nailpolish and a seesaw.
Edited cause of bad, bad spelling and grammar.

Abby's POV.

This was a very, very bad day… Luka had been furious, really furious. The look on his face when he came out of his car a few hours ago had been terrifying. Not to mention how it would have been without the sunglasses. But still, I don't really regret what I did. After all, I had had a great time climbing through a window with a fish tank. With Carter.

With Carter...That had been a really bad idea. For both of the guys. To get Carter in Luka's apartment without keys had been a whole mission on its own, and now Luka is probably thinking that I'm somewhere with Carter making out in the dark. But I'm not.
Ofcourse I'm not.

I glance at my watch; almost ten o'clock. I really should get home considering the fact that I have a shift tomorrow morning.

But right now I'm sitting here, in the dark, on a swing. Coffee in one hand, a tiny little goldfish in a plastic bag in the other.

Why the hell did I buy it anyway? Like Luka would appreciate a goldfish as... as what? An apology? Still staring at my fish, which is swimming up and down the bag, I hear footsteps.

"Good evening miss Criminal."

Carter. He is too far away to see, but his voice and silhouette in the light of the lamppost tell me enough.

I don't say anything and watch him as he sits down on the other swing.

"Overthinking you're deed?" He asks and starts to swing slowly.

"Sort of." I answer and look at him. He's not getting any higher. "You know, the idea is, that you stretch your legs when you go forward, and bend them when you go back, not the other way around."

"Ah..." he answers when he slows down and turns his face towards me. I don't really look back and start to play with my feet over the ground, making my swing swirling a little.

"Is that...a fish?" He asks surprised, pointing at the plastic bag in my hand.

"Yeah, it's supposed to be. Is he still alive?" I hold the bag in front of my face and observe the poor thing. It's like he's getting smaller every minute. Probably he'll die soon.

"Isn't he a little tiny to be a fish at all?" He laughs and comes closer to the bag.

"It's a babyfish." I answer and put the bag down again.

He nods and puts one leg on the other side of the swing so he can talk to me without dieing his neck. "You bought him for Luka?"

"Well yeah, that was the idea." I answer, but I really don't feel like going to Luka and give him a goldfish, not to mention this little ugly babyfish.

"And now you're hopelessly devoted to Fishy."

"Fishy!" I laugh. "What kind of a name is that?" I start to go round and round with my swing, making the two cables cross each other.

"What? How would you name him?"

"Bruce" I cut him off.

"Bruce? He doesn't look like a Bruce to me...I say Fishy."

"Fishy it is." I'm now in a very uncomfortable position, the cables are totally crossed until my shoulders and I can't move my arms anymore.

"I don't think you can make it any further," Carter says, observing my position; I must look pretty abnormal sitting on a swing like this.

"Never did this?" I ask when I close my eyes and let go, the cables get apart again while I'm swirling on my swing, eyes still closed, getting a little dizzy.

"I don't know if Luka is interested in a shaken-up tiny little Goldfish..." Fishy is hanging still, not dead, just still.

"I wonder if Luka is waiting on a goldfish at all." I say now a little irritated. Enough about Luka, I decide and try to change the subject. "So, what's in there?"

He holds up his own bag. "This?" I nod. "Nothing." He stands up and sits down a couple meters further, on the seesaw.

"Oh, come on Carter..." I sit down at the other end. I really want to know what's in his bag...It's probably something for a woman, the bag is baby blue with golden stars. A gift probably.

"It's a present, right?"

"Yes." He says, clearly feeling a little caught.

"So...for who is it?"

"Susan."

Susan. I really don't like her and Carter knows that. That's why he probably didn't want me to know. But they're friends. God, I'm being childish, why can't I handle the fact that Carter likes her? As a friend. A friend. I repeat to myself. Just as I am, we're friends.

"Well, now we know for who it is, tell me what it is."

He shakes his head and puts the bag down besides him, going down again. I'm now up and look down to him. "Just let me take a look." I say and stretch out my hand.

It seems like he's considering to give me the bag and then out of nothing he does. He throws the bag to me and I just catch it on time.

"For what occasion?" I ask when I poach the silver paper off.

"Oh, I don't know. I saw it, and I liked it. But I'm not exactly sure if this... is something for Susan."

I stare blankly at the see-through box, it includes a violet tube 'Lavender face scrub', a plastic bottle 'Lavender showergel' and the thing that surprises me the most, 'Lavender nailpolish'.

"...Wow..." I say perplexed.

"I know, it's stupid. I don't know why I bought." He shakes his head and stares away over the playground.

"You know, it's nice...but not for Susan. She's not really a... lavender nail...polish type. I guess." I suppress a grin and offer him a soft smile.

Although I don't really like Susan, I won't let Carter give this to her, he should come up with something better.

"I know she isn't." And with that he jumps of the seesaw, making me go down with a loud bang.

"Carter, don't!" I shout but I'm already on the ground. "You know that that hurts right?"

"Sorry." He grabs the plastic box out of my hands and walks to the waste bin nearby the swings to throw it away.

"Why did you do that?" I ask stunned when I walk towards him.

"You're right, she won't like it." He turns around and points to the bag in my hand. "Doesn't Fishy needs some sleep?"

I glance at the bag. All of a sudden I hate the goldfish and look at the coffeecup that it still standing under my swing, I really feel like poison him but I know that that would be a slow dead.

"I don't think Luka will like it." I answer as I take the bag in my hand and start to walk away.

"Hey, where are you going!" He shouts and catches up with me.

"Release him."

"Where?"

"In the river."

We walk in silence for a few minutes until we're there. He kneels down by the banisters and I sit down besides him. I open the bag a little. I remember this method how you should release a fish, the bag where he's in should fill with the water from the river and than the fish will swim out.

"You're not that bad with fish after all."

I give him a shy smile while I watch Fishy swimming out of the bag.

"Free Willy..." I say semi-enthusiastic. The tiny goldfish seems to swim away as fast as he can, and after a while I can't see him anymore.

"Maybe he won't die after all." Carter says and gets up.

"Well, we'll never know." I stand up as well and look over the streets, it's getting late, almost midnight. "I should go home, have a shift tomorrow."

He nods and takes a few steps backwards. "See you tomorrow then."

"See you tomorrow", I turn around and start to walk.

"I had a great time today!" He shouts, already on the other side of the street. I turn around and see him standing there, the empty bag crumpled in his hand.

"Me too!" I shout back and smile.

When I'm walking along the Chicago River, I think that I catch a glance of Fishy, swimming there for the rest of his life. But I know that I probably imagined. I didn't give Fishy to Luka and I'm glad that I didn't, it was a bad idea in the first place. Now Fishy is gone I feel like I closed a chapter in my life, the Luka chapter. And I don't know if the fact that I released Fishy together with Carter means anything, but I suppose that I'll find out soon enough...

- The End -

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