Rating:- PG. Methinks…
Category:- AU/Romance,
Carter/Abby fic.
Spoilers:- Nope.
Disclaimer:-
Unfortunately, I do not own these characters. After some rehab I have finally
come to terms with this fact, and grudgingly state that the characters of John
Carter, Abby Lockhart and t'others are all the property of the E.R. dudes.
Authors Notes:- Set in
completely alternate Universe, where Abby works at another Hospital. She's
never met John Carter, and the two have been set up on a blind date…. If you
don't like it… well what can I do? It's only my first fic so be gentle. LoL!
Extras:- MUCHOS MUCHOS
gracias to Kitty for being such a FAB help! Some lines, (not a lot! Hehe!), are
hers.
The Blind date
John Carter looked at the slip
of paper in his hand. Now that he was here he was beginning to have second
thoughts. WHY had Dave talked him into going on a blind date? And with
some Nurse from another hospital that he only had Dave's word on was "a
hottie". Sighing, he looked at the number on the paper, matched it to the door
in front of him, and knocked three times.
***
At 6:15pm, Abby Lockhart was
drying her hair, and cursing her friend's boyfriend Dave for setting her up on
a blind date. She hated things like this. The memory of her 19th
birthday blind date still lingered fresh in her mind. The sight of the toupee,
the hobby of stuffing dead animals, and the endless racist jokes ran riot in
her mind whenever she was reminded of the awful evening with "Mitch". She
shuddered, and then giggled involuntarily at the remembrance of her escape.
Bathroom windows now had a whole new meaning to her. With a wry smile she
turned off the drier, fluffed her hair and glanced down at the note Fran had
scribbled to her before she had left work to receive her blind date- who was
probably 50, fat, bald, and into stuffing dead humans.
-Abby! Just to remind you- he's called JOHN CARTER!
He's coming at 6:30pm. And Abby? Dave says he's a great guy. Come on, you need
a man! Then you can double with us! Anyway, I'll call you later. If you're not
too busy with Johnny boy! Have a great
time~ Fran-
Smiling ruefully she turned up the nob on the radio, to
hear Lifehouse's "Hanging By A Moment" blaring out at full volume. It was her
favourite song at the moment, and she sung at the top of her voice as she
danced into the kitchen and nursed the chicken casserole bubbling nicely on the
stove. She hoped he wasn't vegetarian. Perhaps she should have asked? Ah well.
Too late now. She'd just have to serve it and tell him it was Quorn if he
asked.
"I'll take your invitation…" She
sung to herself as she crouched down and observed the apricot strudel in the
oven. It looked like the heat would need turning down. Reaching her right arm
up over the counter she felt around for dial when suddenly-
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Three loud raps on the door made her yelp from fright and
throw herself backwards, bringing with her the wooden spoon she had been using
to stir the casserole and spilling bright red sauce all over her shirt.
"Shit!" She whispered, and
scrambled to her feet, grasping for a tea towel and wiping the offending stain
from her top.
"Coming! Just… Just a second!"
She yelled in the direction of the door and grabbed another shirt from the pile
of clean clothes on the washing machine. Ripping off her ruined shirt she rued
the day she did anything to offend karma, and vowed to work in a soup kitchen
for every Christmas between now and Judgement Day to avoid any more mishaps and
bad luck that came her way these days.
Finally thrusting her arms into
the new garment she bunched the other shirt into as tight a ball as she could
and opened the door with a flourish of energy.
***
John Carter had just lowered his hand from knocking when
the most tremendous crash could be heard coming from inside. Slightly worried,
he paused a second before opening his mouth to voice his concern through the
door, when a muffled- "I'm coming," came floating through. More sounds of
scrabbling, and the occasional profanity greeted him as he waited in the hall,
not a little scared of the evening he was about to have.
Then all at once the door
opened, and a woman with a flushed face, a shirt that wasn't done up and
ruffled hair stared up at him. She was clutching a soggy ball of material in
her right hand and looked as about as pleased to see him had he been wearing a
black mask and been carrying a scythe.
"Um… high." He started with as
much pleasantness as he could muster faced with this strange sight. "I'm, John
Carter." He extended his hand. She made to accept it, and as she did so seemed
to suddenly realise the openness of her shirt and snatched herself back into
the apartment turning away from him and fumbling to button it up.
"Err, just, err come in. John."
She said over her shoulder, throwing the soggy material in a basket to the
right as she did so. She was as red as a tomato. John felt a little sorry for
her, and smiling he stepped into her house.
"I brought some wine. Where
shall I put it?" He questioned while staring at her window.
"Oh." Carter turned and saw her
standing facing him, running a hand through her hair. She was done up and
un-ruffled, and he had to say she really was very attractive. But, she had a
strange look on her face and the smile playing on his lips faded with
confusion.
"Um… Thank you, John." She
started, moving towards him and reaching for the bottle. "It's just that, um, I
don't drink." She was smiling at him with an unreadable expression. Turning the
bottle over in his hands, John was silent for a second, and then shrugged it
off.
"Oh well, never mind. You can
keep it and give it to someone else."
"No." She said, taking it and
making toward the kitchen. "I'll put it in the refrigerator and you can take it
back with you. It looks very expensive- I couldn't take it."
John smiled and put his hands in
his pockets following her.
"Ok."
***
Abby opened the door to the refrigerator and put the wine
in carefully. It had cost a fortune. Either he was trying to make a good
impression or this guy was filthy rich. She turned and took in his smart
looking suit and tie. He did look nice. In fact, the more she stared at him the
more she took a liking to him. Dave hadn't mentioned just how good-looking John
Carter was. She had just begun to look forward to the evening ahead, when the
memory of his first look at her with her bra showing and hair like a crow's
nest flooded back into her mind.
"Ok, John. The casserole will be
ready in a few minutes so you can make yourself comfortable over on the couch
there. Help yourself to the bits on the table there."
She watched him sit down at the
end of the couch, and politely pick up a few mixed nuts from the dish.
Smoothing herself down she walked over and sat down on the chair opposite. "Small
talk Abby, make small talk and save the big things for dinner." Fran's
advice went round and round in her mind as she struggled for something small to
talk about.
"So. I hear you're Dave's
friend." Oh great Abby. State the obvious.
"Yeah," he laughed. At least he
wasn't groaning. "We work at the same hospital."
"Yeah. Both doctor's." Wow girl.
You're eloquence is just shining through here. Quick say something funny. "I'm
a nurse." Ok. Not quite what I had in mind.
"Oh yeah? You gonna stay with
that? Or be a doctor…? John looked genuinely interested, and Abby's heart
lifted in her chest. He was having a strange effect on her; she was actually
beginning to feel quite attracted to this man.
"Yeah. I think I am. I mean I
started out as a Nurse before I went to Med-School, then when my tuition money…
fell through… I just went back to nursing. I thought about re-applying but I
realised that Nursing is enough for me." (She thought it best to skip the fact
that her bastard ex-husband had 'forgotten' to pay it; it's never good to start
ranting about failed marriages on a first date).
John was leaning forward looking
genuinely interested, and Abby thought the evening didn't look so ominous after
all; she certainly wasn't thinking of the bathroom window.
"Hey, that's great. I used to be
a surgical resident, before I switched to Emergency Medicine…"
***
The
quickly moved from the living room to the kitchen, immersed in continuous
conversation. They couldn't learn enough about each other. John talked about
his brother's untimely death in his childhood, and his stabbing last year.
Contrary to most people, she didn't give him pity, but rather expressed her
sorrow at the situation- and moved on. It was refreshing and the warm feeling
he had been feeling towards her for the greater part of the evening was growing
in his stomach.
Dinner
was divine. She was an amazing cook. She had asked him as they sat down at the
table if he was a vegetarian, and then if he was a Taxidermist. When he assured
her that was not only a meat eater, but also a great lover of burying the dead,
she had laughed- and the sound had filled him with joy. He made a mental note
to buy Dave the biggest breakfast Doc McGoo's would supply tomorrow morning.
He learned of Abby's struggle
with her a bi-polar mother, and that her brother was an Air-Traffic controller
in Florida. She had grown up in Minneapolis and her last boyfriend had moved
back to Croatia nine months previously.
"It wasn't really anything
anyway." She said while swallowing her last mouthful of Apricot Strudel. "We
just had a fling. We couldn't communicate properly and he didn't really know
what I wanted or what I needed. It ended pleasantly and we're still friends."
John laughed. "Even though he's…
In Croatia?!"
"Well, he does call
occasionally! We were involved!" She laughed again. That sound. John had to
look down at his plate to restrain himself from giggling like schoolboy.
***
Abby laughed for the third time in as about as many
minutes as she curled her legs up underneath her on the couch as she listened
to the culmination of the story John was telling her about a joke played on him
at work.
"So, like, here I am with this
huge plaster cast on my leg- having to deal with this mass trauma that came in,
and… eurgh. It was absolute madness."
Abby had to cover her mouth with
her hand to stop herself throwing her head back and guffawing at the image she
had in her mind. John was laughing too and his smile was doing strange things
to her heart. It kept flying up to her mouth, and then shooting back down
again. She was feeling something she hadn't since college, and she liked it. He
was next to her on the couch, and his top button had been undone. He looked
relaxed, and very sexy. Abby had to physically restrain herself from reaching
out a hand and grabbing him. She didn't want to rush anything, and he may not
feel the same way.
***
God, I hope she feels like I do.
John thought as he stared at her next to him; her eyes glistening, one
hand underneath her head as she leant against the back of the couch facing him,
curled up like she was totally comfortable, and didn't have a care in the
world. John couldn't remember when he had last felt so much attraction towards
someone. There had been Anna, but she had left over three years ago before he
had really had a chance to let it go anywhere. Abby was lovely. She was
beautiful, made his stomach flip, was clever, and most of all she made him
laugh. Her story about her last blind date had made him laugh so hard that he
had almost choked on his dessert, but whereas normally embarrassment would have
forced him into silence, he just carried on laughing.
He looked at the clock on the
wall. It was past one. He had an early shift in the morning, and he really
needed to get some sleep. He didn't want to leave, but he had to. Plus, he
didn't know how much longer he could stay here without doing something that
might ruin what he thought could be something good.
"I should be going." He said to
Abby regretfully. She was still smiling, but he was sure he saw something like
disappointment on her face. She sighed and sat up straight.
"Yeah. I've got to get some
sleep. Early shift…" She mumbled.
John nodded. There was a
silence, before John smiled at her and stood up extending his hand for her to
help her up.
"Well, Abby. I had a great time.
Really. I can't remember the last time I had such a good time, or such great
food. You have a gift!"
She took his hand and stood up
next to him. They were very close, and she didn't let go of him.
"Yeah, me too." She agreed.
There was split second pause before she blurted out- "We should do it again…"
John smiled, and nodded.
"Definitely."
There was a pause as they looked
into each other's eyes, each one listening to their own heart race in their
chest, and their blood pulsing in their ears. Flushed faces and shallow
breathing. Each intoxicated with longing for the other. John's brain was
screaming at him to kiss her, but a rational voice inside him told him to go,
make plans, and see her again without ruining it. He never had a chance to
decide which one he would listen to. At that point, Abby leaned in, and kissed
him lightly on the mouth.
A light rush shot up John's body
from his feet to his head sending him reeling with pleasure. He paused for a
split second, before responding gently to her mouth, pulling her closer, and
resting his hands gently on the small of her back. She moved into his embrace,
and the kiss became more passionate.
"Don't you have to be going?"
Abby mumbled when she caught her breath.
"I can spare a few more
minutes." John grinned, before pulling her back to him, and losing himself in
her arms.
***
THE END
CHAPS!
