Disclaimer: Once again, ER and all of its characters are not mine, they are the property of NBC, Michael Crighton, and whoever else owns them.
Author's note: This chapter continues almost exactly after the last one, just continuing the story of Abby and Carter's weekend vacation. Chapter 3 is kind of short, but hopefully I made up for it with Chapter 4, which is rather long. Thanks to everyone who's read and reviewed so far, I appreciate any comments/ criticism of my work.
"Wow," I breathed as we walked into the cabin. "This place is gorgeous."
"I'm glad you like it," responded Carter smoothly. I looked at him strangely for a moment.
"It doesn't always look this way, does it?" I asked.
"Well…" Carter grinned sheepishly, "I came up here a few weeks ago for an afternoon- that day you and Susan had your marathon shopping trip- and cleaned the place up. I didn't know how long it had been since anyone had used it, and I wanted to make sure it looked decent."
"It looks great," I told him. I dumped my suitcase in the front hallway, and began wandering around the cabin, which was actually more like a palace than a cabin. It was the perfect place to spend a quiet weekend away from everything. I walked slowly into the master bedroom, taking in everything possible. As I glanced out the window, I gasped. We were up on a mountaintop, and from that window all you could see was beautiful rolling hills and forest. Suddenly, I realized that Carter had come up behind me.
"That's my favorite spot in the entire world," he said, pointing to a little clearing in the forest.
"It's beautiful," I replied.
"When I was younger, my whole family used to come out here every summer. After a few days, everyone always started fighting with each other, so I'd escape to that spot to be alone. I always thought no one ever knew about it, but when I was older I realized that this bedroom overlooked it, so I'm sure my parents did."
"Who knows? Maybe they didn't know. Parents aren't always as observant and all-knowing as they think they are. Maggie always thought she knew everything about my life, but she didn't, and she never will."
I felt Carter's arms envelop me as he laid his head down on my shoulder.
"I love you, Abby," he whispered.
* * *
In that moment, I knew how I was going to propose. That had been the one detail that I just hadn't quite been able to figure out in this whole thing. The house, the trip, the ring- all of that was already in place. But how to propose- well, that was a different story. I had already screwed it up once, and I wasn't going to do it again. If I messed up this time…I shook my head. It wasn't going to happen, because now I knew that that clearing was perfect. And Abby would understand why it was perfect- actually, I think she already did. She understood everything about me. I couldn't have asked for someone better to fall in love with. Despite everything about her that seemed messed up on the outside, I knew that on the inside she was this troubled, beautiful woman dying to come out of her shell. Sometimes I wished that everyone else could see what I see in her, but it was moments like these that it was kind of nice having it all to myself.
"Carter?" Abby said, breaking me out of my reverie.
"Hmm?" I responded.
"Are we gonna unpack anytime soon, or are we just gonna stand here?"
I softly kissed her neck. "No," I whispered, "we're just gonna stand here forever."
"Okay," she murmured. "Sounds good to me."
