A/N-Well..this is a fic is a challenge from maura2 over at carby.net. I It isn't really very god, but please R&R! Most is from Carter's POV - something that I don't do a lot and some is from Abby's. I haven't seen much of season 9, as I live in the UK and so some details may be inaccurate!

CARTER

I arrive from my break late, to find myself drawn into one trauma after another. My shift ends at nine, yet I'm still in the damn trauma room at eleven. Haleh bursts into the room, piece of paper in her hand, with a message scrawled on it.

'Abby was just on the phone.' she tells me, giving me a disapproving look.

'She was?' I ask, bewildered.

'Yeah, she was pissed.'

'Why?'

'Well apparently you were going to be home by eleven, so that you two could go out for dinner.'

'Oh god..'

'You forgot?'

'She's gonna kill me.'

'I'm sure she won't be that mad.'

'No she will - it was supposed to be our anniversary dinner.'

'Anniversary of what?'

'First time we kissed,' I say, blushing furiously.

'Well I say you get the hell outta here and try to make it up to her.'

'I think I will.'

I leave the trauma room and am about to go to the lounge and get my stuff, when a little girl - no more than five years old, runs up to me and tugs at my shirt.

'Scuse me, are you a doctor?' she says to me, with a slight lisp.

'Yeah,' I say, 'I am.'

'Can you help me?'

'What do you want?'

'My mommy and daddy were brought in here, we got in a car accident, can I please see them?'

'What's your name?'

'Melissa.'

'Melissa what?'

'Melissa Gallant.'

'You related to Michael Gallant?'

'Uncle Mikey?'

'Is he a doctor?'

'Yes, he's very clever! He's my daddy's brother!'

'Okay, well I'll just go check on your parents.okay?'

'Okie!'

I walk down to the admin desk, to enquire about the little girl's parents and when I ask Haleh I'm told that I treated the parents - they both died. I realise that breaking the news to the little girl may take more than a few minutes and so I pick up the phone to call Abby. She picks up on the first ring.

'Hello?'

'Hi, Abby it's me.'

'John, where the hell are you?'

'In the ER.'

'What?'

'Well, I have lots of things to do and I don't think I'll be home in under an hour.'

'I thought that we were supposed to be going out tonight.'

'We were, I promise I'll be home as soon as I can.'

'You'd better be.' she says, before she hangs up. I put the phone down and busy myself trying to find Melissa, who seems to have disappeared. Finally I find her, sitting underneath the stairway.

'Hi Melissa,' I say to her, almost wincing at the hopeful expression on her face.

'How are my mommy and daddy?' she asks, as I go to sit beside her.

'They were really hurt Melissa.'

'Can I see them?'

'Melissa, the doctors all worked very hard to save them, but their hearts stopped beating. Melissa, you mom and dad died.'

'Stop lying, they can't be dead, they were here earlier.'

'Sometimes, for some reason people die.'

'They're not dead! They can't be, please just let me see my mommy.'

'Melissa.'

'I wanna see my mommy, I wanna see my mommy!!' she says, her voice getting louder until she bursts into floods of tears. She leans her head against me as she cries, gradually the crying subsides and she asks to see them. I nod and she follows me into the cold, empty trauma room, where her parents lie - dead.

She doesn't cry like she did earlier, she just looks at the lifeless bodies dumbfounded. I don't think she understands that they're really dead; she goes to stand beside her Mom them and picks up her cold hand. She rests her head on her Mom's lifeless hand and shuts her eyes.

Ten minutes she lets go of her Mom's hand and walks back to me. She lets me lead her out of the room and back to the chairs, where she sits whilst I go find her 'Uncle Mikey'. I find him dealing with an ingrown toenail and I talk to him,

'Gallant, do you have a brother called Chris?'

'Yes, why?'

'Does he have a daughter called Melissa?'

'He does.'

'Well, A Mr Chris Gallant and a Mrs Alicia Gallant were brought in earlier today. They didn't survive.'

'Chris and Alicia are dead?'

'Yeah, I'm really sorry.'

'What about Melissa?'

'She was brought in too, but she didn't have any injuries.'

'Does she know?'

'Yeah, she's sitting the chairs.'

'Is it okay if I go make sure she's okay? I've finished here.'

'Sure, I'll just discharge your patient.'

'Thank you Doctor Carter.' he says, before running off to see his niece, somehow I know that they'll both be okay.

I've just got my coat and left the ER, when I'm stopped by Susan.

'Hiya!' she says to me, overly enthusiastic.

'Hi Susan.' I say to her.

'Taking the El home?'

'Yup.'

'I'm taking the El, want me to walk you home?'

'Yeah, we haven't talked for ages.'

We talk for a while and before I know it we're outside the apartment which has become mine and Abby's. I say goodbye and kiss her on the cheek, not noticing Abby's face peering out at the window.

ABBY He forgets our dinner, he misses our anniversary and he comes home hand in hand with Susan. I feel anger boiling inside me when he hugs her and I sit down, whilst I hear his footsteps coming up the stairs and finally his keys in the lock.

He opens the door and grins at me in his goofy way, I want to forgive him, but I'm jealous. I'm jealous that he forgot about me, yet he spent all that time walking home with Susan. The first words I say to him are,

'About time,'

'Sorry, I had a lot to do.' he says, his face blank.

'Right, which is why you're four hours late.'

'I got tied up at work.'

'Sometimes I think that you just don't care.'

'Aw come on Abby, I'm sorry - no need to hold a grudge.'

'I'm not holding a grudge.'

'Oh?'

'I'm just pissed that you forgot all about our anniversary,'

'Doesn't that just make us a normal couple?'

'Do you not get it?'

'I don't see what there is to get!'

'You don't have time for me - but you have all the time in the world for Susan.'

'So that's what this is about, Susan?'

'No - it's about the fact that you seem to care about her more than me.'

'Abby, you know that isn't true.'

'No? Well it seems like it to me.

'I'm sorry, I'm sorry- okay?'

'No - it isn't okay. Sometimes I think that you just don't want to be with me any more..'

'Come on Abby, I don't wanna fight.'

'Well I do.'

'So we're just gonna yell at each other because we can?'

'No - I'm gonna yell at you for being so friendly with Susan.'

'She's my friend, that's what I am with friends - friendly.'

'Well, how about we just be friends then?'

'No, because I want to be more than friends with you.'

'Then why did you kiss Susan?'

'It was on the cheek!'

'You know what? Just forget about it - I'm going.'

CARTER

She leaves, slamming the door behind her. My first thought is to run after and beg her to forgive me, but I don't.

An hour or two later, I wander into Doc Magoos and find her sitting there. I go and sit opposite her, putting my hands on top of hers.

'How did you know I'd be here?' she asks me, smiling at me.

'I always know,'

'Yeah, sure.'

'Forgive me?'

'Are you sorry?'

Of course, although I'm still not sure what for.'

'I'll take that as an apology.' She leans across the table and kisses me lightly, putting her hand on my cheek.

'You know,' I say to her, 'It might not be a proper Anniversary dinner - but, here we are again.'

'I love you.' She says to me, as she kisses me again.

We're gonna be okay, I'm sure of it.