(Hey everybody. Again, thanks for the wonderful encouragement. I am very frustrated at the moment because my computer has decided to go on strike and I'm having to make to with the crappy ones in my department which think that Windows 95 is hi-tech! This chapter is very uneven as a result, but I'm sure you'll all allow me one little slip. Please? Pretty please? Ooh, you are so good to me!)



Part 9

Luka looked over at Abby as he was putting his things away in his locker and pulled out his lab coat. Abby shifted under the intensity of his gaze and glanced up nervously, but quickly looked down again when she caught his eye. 'Oh my God!' she thought, 'he's going to come over here now and want to know what's going on with the cake. What am I supposed to tell him? Act calm, Abby, act calm, maybe he'll just go away and you and John can get back to where you were before he came in.'

Unfortunately Luka was not as complying as Abby would have hoped. He closed the door to his locker and walked slowly over towards Abby, taking a seat opposite her at the table. He fidgeted for a few moments and shifted in his seat as he looked around at the impromptu decorations in the lounge; Abby was sure that he was going to say something. The question was when? Eventually Luka cleared his throat, and with his chin buried as low into his chest as to could possibly go without cutting off his windpipe he broached the subject that was foremost in his mind:

"So you're engaged."

"Not exactly…"

"But you are wearing a ring on your finger. I can see that." She quickly folded her arms over her chest so that her hands were hidden from his sight. He laughed softly. "Why did you not tell me about this other man before? It cannot be serious or you would have introduced him to your friends a long time ago." He reached over and took her hands in his. "Is this because you would like myself and Carter to be jealous?"

At hearing this Carter let out a laugh, but quickly remembered that he was supposed to be asleep so he coughed and turned onto his side so that his back was now turned to Abby and Luka. Luka looked over at Carter but appeared unconcerned and turned his attention back to Abby. Abby, on the other hand, was feeling very uncomfortable. In fact, she wanted out of this situation as soon as possible.

"Listen Luka…"

"Because it's working."

Abby could see Carter tense up at this remark, and she wasn't exactly relaxed herself. After a short pause she managed to find her tongue enough to stumble out a few words: "…Excuse me?"

"It's working. I'm extremely jealous. I was a fool to let you go but I thought you wanted to be with Carter. Now that I see you have moved on with somebody else I realise that I was just being paranoid, and I would like to give us another chance."

Just as Abby was about to reply the door to the lounge opened and Gallant came in looking for Carter to sign off on a patient. Carter pretended to be in a bad mood at being woken up, but it wasn't difficult as he was not exactly happy that Luka was making a move on his wife. As he followed Gallant out the room he shot a look at Abby that told her to get rid of Luka as soon as possible so they could go home. After the door closed behind him Abby tried to regroup her thoughts and stop Luka from making an even greater fool of himself.

"I'm sorry, Luka, but it's like you said. I'm with somebody else now."

"But it's only an engagement. You can call it off, say you've realised you made a mistake. We could…"

"LUKA I'M MARRIED!" She clapped her hand over her mouth as soon as she'd said the words. She hadn't wanted to tell him like that, but she had to stop him from making his declarations of love. It was just too embarrassing to hear him carry on like that. He appeared shocked for a few seconds, but he quickly regrouped.

"Married?" he asked gently.

Abby still had her hand over her mouth so she simply nodded.

"When did that happen?"

"This morning. It was sort of a spur of the moment type thing." She laughed slightly at the memory of how excited she and John were as they ran down the stairs of City Hall after they had been married.

"Do I know him?"

She thought about this for a second before replying. "Not exactly. You think you know him but you don't know him at all. Not really."

Luka nodded as he took this in. He looked deep into here eyes before asking her, "Is it Carter?"

"…Yes. How did you know? Please don't say anything." She didn't know why she'd added that. She knew Luka would never spread anybody's personal life.

"I pretty much guessed when I saw the look he gave me as he left the room. I didn't think he was really asleep. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, but I had to know for sure. I meant what I said, though; I was a fool to let you go."

"Yeah, you were," said Abby, trying to lighten the mood, "but everything's turned out for the best."

Luka did not laugh. In fact, his face became suddenly serious. "Do you love him?"

"More than anything. We've been together about four months but there's been a connection between us for a lot longer. It feels like I've known him forever. I can see myself happy with him."

"And does he love you?"

Abby laughed again. "I certainly hope so!"

"I do too, for your sake," Luka was still unsmiling and serious. As he rose from his chair and walked towards the door of the lounge he added, "I don't think he deserves you, but I hope he proves me wrong. And don't worry, I won't say anything."

Luka then walked out of the lounge to start his shift. On his way out he bumped into Carter who was just about to enter. He put his hand on the younger man's shoulder and said, "Have a good night, Carter." He then turned to give Abby a brief smile before leaving the room and walking towards the admit desk. Carter walked over and kissed the top of her head before sitting down next to her.

"What was that all about?"

Abby sighed before getting up and going over to her locker. "I don't think I can take any more of this. Are you off?"

"Yeah, in about 5 minutes."

"Well I'm done now. I can't stand it here anymore, not with all these people looking at me and speculating. I'm going to sign out now and I'll meet you at home. Hopefully I'll be in more of a honeymoon mood after a long shower."

She flashed him a brief smile and blew him a kiss before opening the door and walking towards the admit desk to sign herself out. As she was walking towards the exit she heard Carter's voice calling out to her. He was coming out of the lounge with one arm put through the sleeve of his coat and he was just shrugging his other arm into the other sleeve.

"Hang on, Abby, I'll walk with you. I just have to drop some charts off."

Abby paused beside the double doors and waited for Carter to catch her up. The shift had been a real strain on her, and her little talk with Luka was just the icing on the cake. The idea of a secret relationship may have been fun at first but she didn't think she could cope with the constant looks and sly remarks of her colleagues. Thank goodness she and John now had the weekend off. Granted they would have to spend part of it at her ex- husband's wedding, but at least they could be together and open to everybody about their marriage. She just had to get away from this place first…which was probably never going to happen at the rate Carter was going! She could see that instead of signing off on charts he was listening to the nurses gossip, and she could tell it was about her because a few looks were pointed in her direction. This was almost more than she could bear so she yelled out to Carter in her frustration:

"CARTER! Are you coming or not? I've got better things to do than hang around here waiting for you all night!"

He snapped back to attention, signed the last of his charts, and called out to her that he was coming. He was just about to put the charts down and walk out when he again heard part of the conversation taking place at the admit desk:

"HmHm, I'll bet she has better things to do tonight!"

"You don't think its anything too kinky do you? 'Cause there was that time she got carried away with that dominatrix' bag and there are still a couple of items missing last I heard!"

"I don't think so. The poor man would probably be too scared to try anything like that with her in the mood she's in at the moment. I mean, look at the way she just yelled at Carter. She'd be a nightmare to live with, I'm telling you…"

At that point Carter had heard enough. It was fun pulling the wool over people's eyes up to a point, but when they started to judge Abby like this, putting all of the pressure of the secret onto her and none on him, he knew that he had to put a stop to the speculation. He slammed the files down hard onto the admit desk in front of Jerry, stopping the conversation immediately and bringing everybody's attention towards him.

"Jerry, can you make sure these charts get filed as soon as possible and get Susan to check up on Mrs Jenkins in Exam 4 in about half an hour. I'm off for the weekend so I hope when I come back you'll have rediscovered the work ethic and I won't have to listen to you gossiping like an old woman!"

Carter had left his hands on the top of the files as he had put the charts in front of Jerry and he smiled to see that his little ploy had worked. He had no idea whether anybody had heard a word he'd said, but he could see that as he was talking everybody's eyes had been drawn to the simple band on his ring finger that was identical to the one being worn by Abby. They all lifted their heads up slowly and stared at him with their mouths wide open. He knew that their brains were working overtime but nobody seemed able to speak. Carter gave them a huge smile and held up his left hand in a wave that enabled them to see the ring in all its glory:

"Bye guys. See you Monday!"

With that he turned and headed towards the double doors where Abby stood waiting for him. She had a questioning look on her face, not quite sure of what had just happened or why Carter had such a big smile on his face. She was about to ask him what was going on when he bent down and gave her a spine-melting kiss in front of everybody, lifting her off her feet so that she had to throw her arms around his neck to keep from falling over. When he had finished he placed her slowly back onto her feet, and a quick look told him that the staff at the admit desk were still staring after them open-mouthed. Abby looked into Carter's smiling eyes and asked:

"What was that all about?"

"I'll tell you on the way home. I'll tell you one thing, though, it's going to be fun here on Monday!"

Saying this he put his arm around Abby's shoulder and they turned to walk out of the ER together. Without turning to look at the stunned expressions of their colleagues Carter raised his left hand in a wave as he and Abby passed out of the doors and into the ambulance bay. It was after 2 in the morning and the night was chilly, so they huddled closer together as they headed towards the EL and each thought of what remained of their wedding night…

(Two Minutes Later, Inside County General)

"Jerry, has Dr Carter left yet? I wanted to ask him if would stay on for the rest of the shift instead of doing a half…Jerry? Have you heard a single word I said? And why is nobody answering that damn phone?!"

Kerry was just about to demonstrate the dangers of ignoring her to Jerry when she realised that he was not the only one that seemed to have been temporarily paralysed. Lydia, Haleh, Malik and Susan were also staring towards the ambulance bay with identical looks of incomprehension and disbelief on their faces. Kerry tried waving her hand in front of their eyes and snapping her fingers but that didn't seem to have much effect. She was beginning to worry and was about to call in a psyche-consult when the group appeared to move a little. Malik was the first to shake himself out of his trance, and with characteristic understatement managed to sum up the feelings of everybody who had witnessed both Carter's little outburst and the subsequent kiss he gave Abby…

"……Huh?……"



(That's it. Hope it wasn't as bad as I feel it is and that you enjoyed it. Expect the next part some time within the next week unless I get writer's block.)