(I had this all ready and typed up ready to go a couple of hours ago.
Unfortunately my computer decided to shut itself down and it turns out I
had forgotten to save the changes. Oh well, I've finished typing it back in
now, not as good as the original draft but still worth reading I hope.
Sorry that once more my crap computer prevented me from keeping my promise.
Never buy Toshiba! Quick thanks to Lily for pointing out that it should be
Erin Harkins and not Hawkins in the last chapter. I have changed this so
hopefully my indifference to the character has been masked. Honestly, does
anyone else find her a cynical recreation of the Lucy character without any
of the endearing qualities? Oh well, just me then! Enjoy. Em.)
Part 9
Abby looked quickly over at Carter and, realising he wasn't going to help her out of the mess she had gotten herself into, she nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and cleared her throat.
"Mrs Carter! How lovely to see you. I didn't know you were planning on coming to the hospital today."
Eleanor's eyes narrowed. "How strange," she said frostily. "I was under the distinct impression that we were meeting for lunch this afternoon to discuss seating arrangements."
Abby shivered involuntarily at Eleanor's tone but plastered a bright smile on her face and answered in as cheerful a voice as she could muster. "I wish I'd known. You should have come to get me and we could have gone somewhere nice."
If it was possible Eleanor Carter's eyes narrowed even further and her voice was pure venom as she responded. "I did come looking for you. I was assured you were in that room you've just left, in fact, but when I came in there you were nowhere to be seen."
"Funny that!" Abby whispered under her breath.
"What was that?"
"I said I was probably next door in the trauma room picking up supplies. I'm sorry to have missed you."
"I'm sure you were."
Whilst this conversation had been taking place Carter had remained in the background observing the two women, oddly fascinated and wondering who would be the first to break the veneer of false civility. He soon became aware, however, of the looks that Abby was sending his way, and something told him that unless he stepped in soon he wasn't going to be very popular at home for a while. Pushing himself away from the wall he came to stand beside Abby and put his arm around her shoulder, forcing his mother to turn her attention to him.
"Well, now that we're all here together how about we all go out and get something to eat. I was coming to get Abby anyway when I bumped into you, Mom, and we haven't really had a chance to all sit down together and talk since you got back into town. What do you say?" he asked, looking down at Abby to see what she thought of the idea.
"I've just had my break," she said, feeling Eleanor's eyes on her but looking at Carter. "Besides, we're going out to dinner tonight so we can all talk then."
"That's tomorrow night, dear," Eleanor said in her best condescending voice and with a false smile on her face. "I suppose you find the days just bleed together, though. Being a nurse every day must seem the same after a while.
Carter felt Abby tense in his arms, and a quick look at her face showed that she was seething. Sensing that she was about to say something that would do nothing to improve relations between her and his mother he stepped between them and spoke quickly.
"Alright, Mom, so Abby can't make it to lunch. How about you and I go instead? It would be nice to catch up and spend a bit of time together."
"That would be lovely John," Eleanor smiled. "Shall we be getting along then? I know you don't have very long and I don't want to keep you."
"I'll be along in just a minute, there's something I want to say to Abby first. You can wait for me in the lounge if you want."
"Alright darling. Abigail, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Hopefully you'll be feeling a little bit more sociable by then."
Saying this she turned and walked down the hall towards the main desk. Abby immediately set off to confront her but before she could Carter caught hold of her arm and pulled her into an empty exam room across the hall. As soon as the door had closed behind them Abby vented the emotion she had been holding in check.
"I hate that woman!"
"Abby."
"And she hates me too so don't do trying to make any excuses for her!"
"She is my mother."
"Only when it suits her." Abby continued, not wanting to be interrupted mid- rant. "She's only being nice now because she wants to throw this party and be the centre of attention again."
"That's not the reason," Carter said soothingly, walking over to her and placing his hands on her shoulders.
"She's got it all planned. She wants to invite half of Chicago so that you can see what a bad deal you got with me and run off with a society beauty that she approves of!"
"Don't be silly. She just wants to help out, that's all. You and I are having a little trouble with the whole baby thing and she feels a little powerless. She wants to help out in any way she can. Would it really hurt to let her take charge of this anniversary party? I mean."
Carter stopped in surprise when he realised that Abby had backed away from him and was looking at him intently.
"You told her?"
Something about her tone of voice told him that he had done something wrong, but hopefully pleading ignorance would get him out of this. "Excuse me?"
"You said she feels powerless about the 'baby thing'," Abby said slowly, running the conversation over in her mind. "Does that mean you told her about us?"
Uh-oh.
"I might have mentioned something in passing." he started in a small voice
"I can't believe you sometimes, John!" Abby exploded. "You know your mother is always on the lookout for the slightest little thing to make my life a misery and you go and hand it to her on a silver platter! What on earth possessed you?"
"It wasn't like that," he said, trying to explain himself. "She was talking about the anniversary and asking why we weren't starting to think about starting a family, so I said that we were, and that."
".and that we were having problems conceiving," she finished his sentence for him. "Jesus, John! There are some things you just don't tell your mother and this is one of them. She's got to be loving this."
"No she's not! She swore she wouldn't make an issue about this so long as she got free rein with the planning, and I didn't think that was too unreasonable. After all, she is just trying to be helpful."
"I can't believe you sold your soul to the Devil," Abby muttered to herself.
"C'mon, Abby, it's only a party and she is my mother," Carter pleaded, trying one last time to placate Abby; he had never seen her this angry and it frightened him that it was his mother who had this effect on her. Abby, however, evidently didn't want to hear his excuses and rounded on him with force.
"Listen to me, John," she said firmly, pointing a finger at her husband. "She can do what she likes with this party, I honestly don't care. I'll go along, play the dutiful daughter-in-law, whatever it takes. But until then if that woman comes near me the question of whether or not you are able to have children will be a moot point! Do you understand me?"
Carter shivered and reflexively lowered his hands. He nodded his head and gulped once before answering in a small voice. "I'll tell her to back off."
"You do that," Abby hissed, turning on her heel to leave the room. At the door she paused with her hand on the handle, debating whether to turn back or not. She had been standing in this position for a minute or so when Carter called out to her softly.
"Abby?"
When she didn't respond he walked over to her slowly, tentatively placing a hand on her shoulder and saying her name again.
"Abby? Abby what's wrong?"
More silence. Carter was starting to get worried and was about to call her again when he heard her say something:
"I got my period this morning."
She didn't turn around but looked down at her feet and spoke in such a small voice that Carter wasn't sure if he had heard her or not. He hadn't even realised she was late. Instead of questioning her he simply turned her around and pulled her gently into his arms, allowing her to snuggle against his chest and continue when she felt comfortable.
"I was only three days late but you know me, I'm never late. It's a stupid thing to get upset about and I shouldn't have let it get to me, but you can see why the last thing I need to deal with at the moment is your mother and her snide comments.oh God, I'm so sorry!" she added, bursting into tears and clutching onto his shirt. Carter wrapped his arms even tighter around her body and let her cry it out.
"What are you sorry for?" he said soothingly, rubbing her back as the sobs subsided. "You can't help that this was a false alarm. We're both a little anxious so it's only natural that we're going to jump the gun a couple of times."
"That's not what I'm sorry for," Abby sniffed, pulling away from him slightly and rubbing away the last of her tears with her sleeve. "I swore that I would never blame you for your mother because you've never blamed me for mine, but here I am shouting at you because I can't go down the hall right now and wring her neck.no matter how much I want to!"
Carter laughed and kissed Abby gently on the lips. "Plenty of time for that at Christmas. The whole family feels the same round about then."
"Really? Think Gamma will hold her down for me?"
"She'd do pretty much anything if you asked her to.you want me to go and tell Mom that I can't make it to lunch anymore?" he asked, cocking his head to one side and regarding Abby closely as he wiped away the traces of tears on her cheek. She was joking again, but he wanted to be sure that she wasn't just putting on a front as she usually did.
"No, I'll be fine if I keep myself busy, speaking of which I'm supposed to be fetching more gauze for Susan so I'd better get going."
"Are you sure?" Her eyes were still a little teary and red from crying, and he knew she was a little more emotional than usual at the moment.
"Go!" she ordered, smiling as she held open the door and ushered him out of it. "I've already kept her little boy away from her for too long, and we want tomorrow to go nice and smoothly don't we? Don't give her any more reasons to be upset at me."
Carter bent down and gave her another kiss in the doorway, smiling in response to her smile. "I'll have a word with mother. She's not all that bad and she can be very sweet sometimes. You two just got off on the wrong foot."
"If you say so," Abby said absently, not really believing but Carter was saying but humouring him nevertheless. "Now go and have lunch with your mother, and I'll see you when you get back."
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(Not really an ending to that chapter because I couldn't really think of one! Hope it didn't disappoint, and I'm sorry that I didn't keep to my 'next day' promise. I swear I'm good at deadlines when it comes to essays! No promises when the next part will come, but if it isn't posted by Sunday then it won't be until after the 13th. Two big essay deadlines coming up unfortunately so I can't put them off much longer!)
Part 9
Abby looked quickly over at Carter and, realising he wasn't going to help her out of the mess she had gotten herself into, she nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and cleared her throat.
"Mrs Carter! How lovely to see you. I didn't know you were planning on coming to the hospital today."
Eleanor's eyes narrowed. "How strange," she said frostily. "I was under the distinct impression that we were meeting for lunch this afternoon to discuss seating arrangements."
Abby shivered involuntarily at Eleanor's tone but plastered a bright smile on her face and answered in as cheerful a voice as she could muster. "I wish I'd known. You should have come to get me and we could have gone somewhere nice."
If it was possible Eleanor Carter's eyes narrowed even further and her voice was pure venom as she responded. "I did come looking for you. I was assured you were in that room you've just left, in fact, but when I came in there you were nowhere to be seen."
"Funny that!" Abby whispered under her breath.
"What was that?"
"I said I was probably next door in the trauma room picking up supplies. I'm sorry to have missed you."
"I'm sure you were."
Whilst this conversation had been taking place Carter had remained in the background observing the two women, oddly fascinated and wondering who would be the first to break the veneer of false civility. He soon became aware, however, of the looks that Abby was sending his way, and something told him that unless he stepped in soon he wasn't going to be very popular at home for a while. Pushing himself away from the wall he came to stand beside Abby and put his arm around her shoulder, forcing his mother to turn her attention to him.
"Well, now that we're all here together how about we all go out and get something to eat. I was coming to get Abby anyway when I bumped into you, Mom, and we haven't really had a chance to all sit down together and talk since you got back into town. What do you say?" he asked, looking down at Abby to see what she thought of the idea.
"I've just had my break," she said, feeling Eleanor's eyes on her but looking at Carter. "Besides, we're going out to dinner tonight so we can all talk then."
"That's tomorrow night, dear," Eleanor said in her best condescending voice and with a false smile on her face. "I suppose you find the days just bleed together, though. Being a nurse every day must seem the same after a while.
Carter felt Abby tense in his arms, and a quick look at her face showed that she was seething. Sensing that she was about to say something that would do nothing to improve relations between her and his mother he stepped between them and spoke quickly.
"Alright, Mom, so Abby can't make it to lunch. How about you and I go instead? It would be nice to catch up and spend a bit of time together."
"That would be lovely John," Eleanor smiled. "Shall we be getting along then? I know you don't have very long and I don't want to keep you."
"I'll be along in just a minute, there's something I want to say to Abby first. You can wait for me in the lounge if you want."
"Alright darling. Abigail, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Hopefully you'll be feeling a little bit more sociable by then."
Saying this she turned and walked down the hall towards the main desk. Abby immediately set off to confront her but before she could Carter caught hold of her arm and pulled her into an empty exam room across the hall. As soon as the door had closed behind them Abby vented the emotion she had been holding in check.
"I hate that woman!"
"Abby."
"And she hates me too so don't do trying to make any excuses for her!"
"She is my mother."
"Only when it suits her." Abby continued, not wanting to be interrupted mid- rant. "She's only being nice now because she wants to throw this party and be the centre of attention again."
"That's not the reason," Carter said soothingly, walking over to her and placing his hands on her shoulders.
"She's got it all planned. She wants to invite half of Chicago so that you can see what a bad deal you got with me and run off with a society beauty that she approves of!"
"Don't be silly. She just wants to help out, that's all. You and I are having a little trouble with the whole baby thing and she feels a little powerless. She wants to help out in any way she can. Would it really hurt to let her take charge of this anniversary party? I mean."
Carter stopped in surprise when he realised that Abby had backed away from him and was looking at him intently.
"You told her?"
Something about her tone of voice told him that he had done something wrong, but hopefully pleading ignorance would get him out of this. "Excuse me?"
"You said she feels powerless about the 'baby thing'," Abby said slowly, running the conversation over in her mind. "Does that mean you told her about us?"
Uh-oh.
"I might have mentioned something in passing." he started in a small voice
"I can't believe you sometimes, John!" Abby exploded. "You know your mother is always on the lookout for the slightest little thing to make my life a misery and you go and hand it to her on a silver platter! What on earth possessed you?"
"It wasn't like that," he said, trying to explain himself. "She was talking about the anniversary and asking why we weren't starting to think about starting a family, so I said that we were, and that."
".and that we were having problems conceiving," she finished his sentence for him. "Jesus, John! There are some things you just don't tell your mother and this is one of them. She's got to be loving this."
"No she's not! She swore she wouldn't make an issue about this so long as she got free rein with the planning, and I didn't think that was too unreasonable. After all, she is just trying to be helpful."
"I can't believe you sold your soul to the Devil," Abby muttered to herself.
"C'mon, Abby, it's only a party and she is my mother," Carter pleaded, trying one last time to placate Abby; he had never seen her this angry and it frightened him that it was his mother who had this effect on her. Abby, however, evidently didn't want to hear his excuses and rounded on him with force.
"Listen to me, John," she said firmly, pointing a finger at her husband. "She can do what she likes with this party, I honestly don't care. I'll go along, play the dutiful daughter-in-law, whatever it takes. But until then if that woman comes near me the question of whether or not you are able to have children will be a moot point! Do you understand me?"
Carter shivered and reflexively lowered his hands. He nodded his head and gulped once before answering in a small voice. "I'll tell her to back off."
"You do that," Abby hissed, turning on her heel to leave the room. At the door she paused with her hand on the handle, debating whether to turn back or not. She had been standing in this position for a minute or so when Carter called out to her softly.
"Abby?"
When she didn't respond he walked over to her slowly, tentatively placing a hand on her shoulder and saying her name again.
"Abby? Abby what's wrong?"
More silence. Carter was starting to get worried and was about to call her again when he heard her say something:
"I got my period this morning."
She didn't turn around but looked down at her feet and spoke in such a small voice that Carter wasn't sure if he had heard her or not. He hadn't even realised she was late. Instead of questioning her he simply turned her around and pulled her gently into his arms, allowing her to snuggle against his chest and continue when she felt comfortable.
"I was only three days late but you know me, I'm never late. It's a stupid thing to get upset about and I shouldn't have let it get to me, but you can see why the last thing I need to deal with at the moment is your mother and her snide comments.oh God, I'm so sorry!" she added, bursting into tears and clutching onto his shirt. Carter wrapped his arms even tighter around her body and let her cry it out.
"What are you sorry for?" he said soothingly, rubbing her back as the sobs subsided. "You can't help that this was a false alarm. We're both a little anxious so it's only natural that we're going to jump the gun a couple of times."
"That's not what I'm sorry for," Abby sniffed, pulling away from him slightly and rubbing away the last of her tears with her sleeve. "I swore that I would never blame you for your mother because you've never blamed me for mine, but here I am shouting at you because I can't go down the hall right now and wring her neck.no matter how much I want to!"
Carter laughed and kissed Abby gently on the lips. "Plenty of time for that at Christmas. The whole family feels the same round about then."
"Really? Think Gamma will hold her down for me?"
"She'd do pretty much anything if you asked her to.you want me to go and tell Mom that I can't make it to lunch anymore?" he asked, cocking his head to one side and regarding Abby closely as he wiped away the traces of tears on her cheek. She was joking again, but he wanted to be sure that she wasn't just putting on a front as she usually did.
"No, I'll be fine if I keep myself busy, speaking of which I'm supposed to be fetching more gauze for Susan so I'd better get going."
"Are you sure?" Her eyes were still a little teary and red from crying, and he knew she was a little more emotional than usual at the moment.
"Go!" she ordered, smiling as she held open the door and ushered him out of it. "I've already kept her little boy away from her for too long, and we want tomorrow to go nice and smoothly don't we? Don't give her any more reasons to be upset at me."
Carter bent down and gave her another kiss in the doorway, smiling in response to her smile. "I'll have a word with mother. She's not all that bad and she can be very sweet sometimes. You two just got off on the wrong foot."
"If you say so," Abby said absently, not really believing but Carter was saying but humouring him nevertheless. "Now go and have lunch with your mother, and I'll see you when you get back."
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(Not really an ending to that chapter because I couldn't really think of one! Hope it didn't disappoint, and I'm sorry that I didn't keep to my 'next day' promise. I swear I'm good at deadlines when it comes to essays! No promises when the next part will come, but if it isn't posted by Sunday then it won't be until after the 13th. Two big essay deadlines coming up unfortunately so I can't put them off much longer!)