A/N: I'm excited to see at least a few of you are still here hanging out! I can't promise that all updates will be this speedy, but I had the first few chapters ready to go, so I'll get them up relatively quickly.


"I can only let you stay for a few minutes."

Abby nodded at the nurse's words as she walked slowly into Brody's small room in the ICU. She quietly pulled a chair up to the side of the bed and sat down, feeling Donnie's eyes on her the entire time. Reaching out, she grabbed Brody's hand and pressed her fingers into his wrist, closing her eyes as she focused on the pulse beneath her fingers.

Feeling as though he were somehow intruding, Donnie eventually turned his back and stepped away from the room. "Thank you," he said to the nurse, who was still standing outside the room, looking entirely unsure of the situation.

"Five minutes is all I can give her," she said. "He's really not supposed to have any visitors at all beyond immediate family."

"I appreciate you bending the rules for her," Donnie said.

The nurse shrugged. "No one knows for sure what our patients are aware of and what they're not," she said. "But I've noticed that the ones without family, the ones who don't get to have visitors, they don't do as well as the ones who do. On some level, I think maybe it gets through even if they're not fully aware."

"There's no family at all?" Donnie asked.

"From what I understand, they haven't been able to locate any," the nurse said. "We have a social worker on staff who handles things like this, and she's working on it."

"Abby might know," Donnie said. "I'll ask her when she's done."

The nurse nodded. "I've got another patient to check on," she said. "I'll be back in five minutes."


Abby shook her head as she looked around the room at the wires and machines all hooked up to the body lying in the bed. In a way, she couldn't even bring her mind to connect him with the man whose arms she'd slept in just the night before.

"You have to be okay," she said quietly, still holding tightly to his hand. "You have to get through this, John, because I can't do this alone. I won't do this alone."

Shaking her head, she almost smiled at the look of confusion she knew would be on his face if he were awake. "You don't even know what I'm talking about, do you?" she asked. "You're supposed to know by now. We're supposed to be at the lake right now, and you're supposed to have figured out that surprise I told you about. This isn't how tonight was supposed to go."

Abby sighed and squeezed his hand. "Do you remember the first time you took me to the lake?" she asked. "I'll never forget that. It was right after that case where I had to bring my dad in for questioning, remember? My brothers wouldn't even look at me for weeks after that. And yet, somehow you managed to take one really crappy week and make it all disappear. You always seem to be able to do that…"

"I can't believe that I let you talk me into this," Abby complained as she leaned forward and squinted to make out any signs of civilization through the windshield of the car.

"Trust me, you'll appreciate it once we get there," Brody said, maneuvering the car around yet another curve on the dusty road. "After the week you've had, you needed to get away."

"You're dragging me out to the middle of nowhere to murder me and dump my body, aren't you?" Abby asked skeptically.

Brody laughed and looked over at her. "You've got the middle of nowhere part right," he said. "But if I were going to kill someone, I don't think I'd pick a woman who carries a gun."

"You'd have a point, except that my gun is locked up in my gun safe in my apartment," Abby said. "All I have to defend myself in my bag is what you told me to pack - a couple t-shirts, a pair of jeans, and a swimsuit."

"Don't forget the toothbrush," Brody pointed out.

"Oh, sure, there's that," Abby said. "I guess I could whittle that down to a shiv and stab you if you try to kill me. Of course, I'll probably be dead long before I could get it sharp enough to do any damage, so that's really useful."

"In that case, I suppose you'll just have to take my word for it that I'm not a serial killer," Brody said.

"I never said you were a serial killer," Abby said. "Maybe I'm your first victim and you'll go serial after me."

Brody shook his head. "That's a highly unlikely scenario."

"Why?" Abby asked, shooting him a playful grin.

"Because, if I were starting with you, I'd have pretty standards to meet with next one, wouldn't I?" Brody asked.

"Seriously?" Abby groaned and smacked his thigh. "That's your attempt at flattery? Really?"

"Hey, you're the one who started the serial killer conversation!" Brody protested. "All I'm doing is trying to prevent an awkward silence."

Abby glanced over at him out of the corner of her eye, intending to give him another sharp retort, but something about the sincerity of the look on his face struck her, and she suddenly found herself laughing so hard she doubled over and grabbed the dashboard to steady herself.

"I'm sorry," she gasped. "It's just…you're adorable when you're trying to be serious."

"I can't tell if that's a compliment or not, but I'll take it," Brody said, smiling as he made one last turn and began to slow the car. "There. We're here."

Taking a moment to compose herself, Abby slowly sat up. As she did, her jaw dropped at the sight of the sprawling two-story house at the end of the gravel driveway they were now on.

"Oh my God," she gasped. "Brody, this place is…I don't even know. It's gorgeous. What are we doing here?"

Brody shrugged. "I told you," he said. "We're getting away."

"You rented this place?" Abby asked, climbing out of the car and looking around, catching a glimpse of what appeared to be a lake on the other side of the house. "How can you even afford this?"

"It's a pretty old house," Brody said with a quick shrug. "The exterior's been completely renovated, but the interior's still a major work in progress."

"But still…"

"Stop questioning things and come inside," Brody said, shaking his head as he held open the front door. "Sometimes, you just need to stop analyzing and start feeling. Do you trust me?"

Abby smiled as she reached up and ran her hand over his cheek, carefully avoided the tubes running from his nose and mouth. "You were right," she said. "You know why I love that weekend so much? Because that was the first time I knew that despite all my efforts to avoid it, there was going to be an 'us.' So don't you dare even think about dying on me at this point, John Brody, because we're supposed to be getting the good part."