Matters Of The Heart
Set in 2017. When Abby and Luka travel back to Chicago for Rachel Green's wedding, a lot of feelings, past and present are put in play. Including those unfinished ones between Carter and Abby. AU
So... who else is having ER feels after the show was put on streaming by Hulu. This is AU but follows most of the timeline and characters of the show. Aso, Carter and Abby had a son in 2003.
Abby was grateful their trip to Chicago happened during the summer, she had already suffered enough cold nights in Boston as it was. She made sure her carry on bag was securely next to the her of the luggage as she watched the boys making their way over.
Luka, the one she couldn't possibly miss because of just how tall he was, waved at her;he had managed to sneak over with the rest of the luggage and a cart which AJ pushed forward with little effort;Luka had a hand placed in Joe's shoulder.
"Finally. What took you guys so long?" She asked, AJ, true to his teenage nature rolled his eyes at her. It was spooky just how much his kid took after Carter in almost every way.
"You know you could just say thank you, we almost didn't get one Mom." AJ said, even the way he talked sounded just like Carter.
"Thank you." Abby said. AJ gave her a small smile as he and Luka put the rest of the luggage on the cart.
"Why we need so many bags is a mystery to me." Luka added as the family walked over to the exit. Abby pushed the stroller where the latest addition of the family slept soundly.
Niko had been a trooper the whole flight thankfully. "You are the one with the most bags. It's just one for the boys and two more from me and one for AJ." Abby added in. Joe and AJ laughed at the prospect of Luka being told off.
"Are you sure he got the time right?" Luka asked. Carter had offered to pick them up from the airport.
"Of course, I just texted him." Abby said. "Everyone's got everything?"
"Yep!" Joe said, her son, almost 10, smirked. If AJ was all Carter, Joe took after Luka for sure, a reminder for Abby of two of the most important people in her life. Even in the years after her dramatic breakup with John, the loss of Joshua and sharing a child, Abby understood she'd always love Carter.
"Mommy, I'm tired..." A small voice called. Niko was just shy of turning 5, he'd been their last addition of the family, a baby born via surrogate as Abby wasn't able to carry more children, lord knows she and Luka had experienced hardship by trying to adopt and because of Abby's age, trying for a child after having struggled with complications with both her boys, Surrogacy seemed the way to as she and Luka longed for another baby.
Abby sometimes felt lost in her brood of boys but she couldn't deny she also felt special. It was quite an odd feeling.
"I think that's us." AJ said as he pushed the cart forward. "Hey Dad!"
Carter then parked the car, Abby hadn't seen him in a few months, he had allowed AJ to fly alone to Chicago a couple times now as she and Luka had gone to Croatia to see her father in law as his health began to deteriorate. Abby swore Carter looked younger this time around, his hair was longer and the beard was in full throttle, he waved at them and wrapped an arm around his son.
"Luka thought you'd forgotten about us." AJ said as he helped John and Luka load the car.
"I didn't..." Luka added in.
"What little faith you must have in me." Carter replied with a bit of mischief in his voice. "I got caught in a trauma, sorry-"
"It's fine Carter" Abby sighed as she jumped in the back of the car, securing Niko in her arms. "Let's go."
They drove over to the hotel, Cater had offered them to stay over at his family's house but they had declined, AJ though would be going back with him at the end of the day.
The prospect of spending the summer in Chicago with his dad always made her son happy and she wouldn't have it any other way.
Rachel Green was getting married.
It made Abby reconsider a lot of things, she hadn't known Mark like Carter and Haleh had, she had little right to be there but Rachel had insisted they were as much her family as the rest of the staff.
Most of them were there, Susan, Peter and Carol had made it back, Doug had remained back in Seattle working on an ongoing case, but she figured if there should be someone representing Mark's best friend, Carol had been the right person to come instead of Dr. Ross bringing the kids along for it.
Just as Abby, the Ross family had expanded over the years, a little boy had completed the family in 2007 much like Joe had come to make Abby's life a tad more chaotic.
"Mom?" the former nurse shifted in her flat shoes as she turned to face her son. "You okay?"
"Of course baby, I'm fine." Abby sighed, AJ was no baby anymore.
He was her little fighter, who just like Joe, had defied the odds against him and survived. He was born from a loving relationship between his parents but with an outcome that was less than ideal for the little one.
First off, she hadn't told Carter right away she'd been pregnant. She hadn't told him at all really, the memory of his move to Congo was still a bit too fresh and yet Luka had been Team Carter and told him he'd had a son shortly after she'd been born, a son who was loved and cherished by all the people around him.
Abby knew though that Carter regretted not knowing about it as he'd met AJ for the first time when he was around 5 months old after he'd come back from Africa.
But Luka, Abby and Carter were a kind of dysfunctional family that made it work. When Carter had lost Joshua, Abby made a promise to keep her son as close to John as she could, inspite of Kem's feelings.
Abby suspected the situation might have done something to do with the woman's abandonment of Carter after they'd lost their son but they never dwelled on it as it seemed too painful for the both of them to think just how it had gone down, Kem being just down selfish if you'd ask Abby, not that she'd ever admitted it to John.
The rehearsal diner had gone great. Elizabeth and Rachel's mom had cried as Jaime, Rachel's paramedic fiancé assured his love for her. Her eyes quickly searched for Luka's, he and Carter had sat next to each other in real camaraderie.
It still amazed her just how well those two got along, even with all the drama surrounding the little family she and her boys had made.
Her boys, she thought of her three little ones and two big ones. Carter and Kem had gotten a divorce finally as the years had dragged along for her and the pain of losing her son became more and more evident.
"Your mind seems to be all over the place." Carol Hathaway said with a smile. "Weddings huh? They bring all these feelings back"
"Which ones?"
"Husbands and kids, people that are not around anymore." Carol said. "It does to me, affect me I mean, specially with the kids here and Doug being gone."
"Right, yeah for me it's a little bit more complicated than that." Abby said sadly.
"Carter?"
Abby nodded. "How is he anyway?"
"He says he's okay, and I want to believe him but it just makes it so hard to think he doesn't have AJ around for most of the year and I dared to move him away." She admitted.
"Has he said something?" Carol asked.
"Nah, he's Carter. He'll never complain about it."
"But he feels it." Carol said. Abby nodded.
"Again, he's Carter, he'll try to make sure everyone else is okay before taking care of himself." Abby said with a small chuckle.
"He's a good dad isn't he?" Carol more affirmed than asked.
"One of the best, if he and Luka were to fight it off, I would not like to be in the middle of it." Abby turned to see how Luka and Niko laughed at one of Jerry's magic tricks. "I couldn't be at all neutral."
"I wouldn't want to have to choose either, good thing you don't have to, those two are pretty close." Carol smiled.
"Yeah, I guess surviving a war filled Congo together will do that to you." Abby sighed. "It's pretty scary."
"Way too scary." Carol laughed.
They remained quiet as Luka and Carter made their way over. "Boys..." Carol smiled. "Quite the turnout huh?"
"Yes, Rachel seems happy." Luka said.
"Still, I feel like Mark should be here," Carter said sadly. "He'd be so happy of everything she's accomplished."
"I'm pretty sure he knows Carter." Carol said.
"So, you to had a nice conversation?" Luka asked.
"Yeah, you know we were talking about work, kids, the usual." Abby glanced over at Carol nervously.
"I also have a feeling you were talking about us." Carter said. Abby froze, she didn't think they could hear her but then again, she had been caught in the middle of over analyzing the fathers of her children.
"No, of course not."
"Are you sure?" Luka pressured on, looking on at Carter who tried to suppress a smile.
"Go will you? Keep an eye on the kids." Abby waved her arms away. "So? Go on, I don't want Niko to go grabthe candy table again." Luka nodded as he led Carter away.
Yep, those were her boys alright.
Sooo... I'm venting all my ship feels of over 11 years in this fic, won't be too long though, probably a couple of chapters.