Chapter Ten - Nothing's Changed

1pm - Abby's apartment

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that when one part of your life is going well, the other falls catastrophically to the ground. This was so for most people, but for her, it seemed almost definite for every small thing that went well, something really bad would tend to occur. Mostly it was Maggie, but sometimes, on the off chance she decided to take her medicine, it was something else. Very small of course. Luckily, if you look at it this way, she had Carter to help her this time. Like last time, but this time, she could show him how much she appreciated him, not just one worded answers and long looks. She could give him her true emotions, she could give everything.

"John you ready?!"

"Give me a minute I can't..do..up.these damn..trousers!"

"Again?! I think you've put on some weight John."

"Thanks for that analysis. These pants are useless."

"Don't blame the pants John. It's your waistband that's the problem!"

"Hey! Need I remind you that yours will shortly be expanding much bigger than mine so I'd save the jokes if I were you!"

"Yeah but that's not actually my fault. It's yours."

"How did you work that one out?!"

"Quite easily actually. If you listened in Biology class, it takes two to create 'the miracle of life'."

"I'm well aware of that thank you."

"There's your proof then. You made me 'in the family way' AND you ate yourself into a chubby ageing man who can't get his pants on!"

"Right that's it Abigail, you're so gonna get it!"

He dropped the pants and chased after her as she darted off down the hall. The apartment wasn't huge, so there was only so many places she could have gone. He checked in the kitchen, nowhere to be seen. 'Little minx', he thought to himself smiling as he crept around the room. He was creeping quietly so he could pounce suddenly and scare the living daylights out of her. That would be funny, he thought as he continued his search. She was a damn good hider though! He silently slid into the bedroom and waited in the dark corner to see if there was any movement. He suddenly saw a foot poke out from under the bed, and so decided to pretend he hadn't seen her. He slid out the door and waited just outside. She slowly emerged from underneath the bed, and silently got up. That was his chance.

"Ha! Gotcha!" He shouted as he ran into the room and grabbed her before she had a chance to run away.

"Ahhh!" She squealed as he shoved her onto the bed.

"You thought you could get away!"

"Obviously not!"

"Not now anyway!"

He tickled her mercilessly until she could hardly contain herself anymore. Suddenly she let out a huge fart and he suddenly stopped and stared at her. Her face, a mask of horror and embarrassment was a near beetroot colouring, and she wanted the world to just swallow her up. She waited for him to speak his words of total disgust as she covered her face with her hands, hearing her heart beating so fast she thought it would just stop. Instead of the words of disgust, a huge smile spread across his face as he saw how embarrassed she was and burst out laughing.

"Abby that was the sweetest thing I've ever heard!" He carried on laughing, with his head in her chest, while she took a few seconds to realise that he had reacted in this way.

"John it's not funny it's disgusting!"

"Oh come on Abby it's funny!"

"Not for me. Do you realise how embarrassed I am?!"

"Yeah but you shouldn't be. I do it all the time."

"So?! You're a man, which means you are allowed to burp and fart all you want! Lady's, are not. It's not polite for women to fart and burp all the time!"

"Abby this is me, I'm not gonna care if you burped, farted, sneezed and coughed at the same time, you'd still look cute."

"Now I know you're lying!"

"I am not! Would I lie to you?"

"Probably not. But if you had to, you so would!"

"Only for your sake, but you'd eventually find out in the end anyway!"

"Eventually!"

He smiled at her again and kissed her passionately. Their kissing continued for a while until Abby looked at the clock, mid-making out and realised they had ten minutes to get to Gamma's.

"John we're gonna be late!"

She pushed him off her and ran into the bathroom to continue getting ready, leaving Carter a little miffed.

2pm - Carter Mansion

"It's lovely to see you again Abigail, it seems John has a habit of hiding you away. Are you ashamed of her John?"

"No not at all!"

"Well make sure you bring her round here more often, I would like to get to know my future grand daughter-in-law!"

Abby and Carter's mouths dropped. How did she know they were going to get married? Carter began to stammer a sentence, making it even more obvious she was right!

"What makes you think we are getting married Gamma?"

"Oh it's the look people get when they have a big secret. Especially people in love. I know you better than you think John!"

He gave Gamma an inquisitive look and then looked across at Abby who was trying to hide her laughter. She liked Gamma a lot, and it was nice to see somebody make Carter squirm for once.

"Now my dear, would you like some more tea?"

8.30pm - ER

"So we're definitely telling everybody TODAY?"

"Yeah. Today. When shall we do it? At the end of the shift or the beginning?"

"Abby stop panicking, it's going to be fine. Trust me."

"You seem to be saying that a lot recently! Is there something you're not telling me?!"

"Would I?! Come on!"

They left the lounge, and went straight to the admit desk, where Chen, Haleh, Yosh and Frank were standing around looking at charts and chatting about not very interesting things.

"Um guys? Abby and I would like to announce something."

They looked at Carter, and at Abby looking intrigued. What was going on?

"Abby and I, we.uh.we've been.together again, for a couple of months now, and we haven't told you because there was something we needed to sort out first."

By this time, Weaver, Kovac, Lewis, Lydia, Corday and Gallant had collected around the area.

"What's going on here?" Asked Kerry interrupting.

"Carter's making an announcement." Answered Yosh, whispering.

"We came to the conclusion that, well I came to the conclusion that I couldn't live another day without Abby, so I made some sort of a romantic gesture in a bid to get her back. Luckily she wasn't thinking that day and took me back!"

The small crowd laughed a little, then Carter became serious again.

"I asked Abby to marry me, and she said yes."

"Oh congratulations!" Said Lydia.

"When's the big day?" Asked Deb.

"Um.we haven't decided yet." Answered Abby.

"Congratulations you two." Said Kerry, before tapping Carter on the shoulder and giving Abby a heart warming look, and silently walking away, back to work.

A round of 'congratulations' and 'this is great' was heard for a couple of minutes, then the crowd slowly drifted off.

"Well, I think that went well." Said Carter after everybody had gone and they had made their way to the lounge.

"It did didn't it?"

"I'd say so."

"I don't know why I was so worried."

"Maybe you were worried I'd realise I'd made a terrible mistake and drop out!" Answered Carter sarcastically.

"You dare!" She scowled back playfully.

"I love you, you know that?!"

"Really?! I would never have known!"

6pm - Next day - Abby's apartment

"What do you want for dinner tonight?"

"How about we go celebrate?"

"Sure. Know anywhere good?"

"Um, I have a few places up my sleeve."

"Ooh, John Carter man of mystery."

"That's me. So you wanna go now?"

"Sure. Let me just get my coat."

She returned with the coat, and Carter held out his hand.

"Come with me if you want to live!"

"Oh you are so sad!"

They laughed and left the apartment. Half an hour later, the phone rang. It rang three times, then the machine clicked and Abby's voice was heard.

'Hi this is Abby, I'm not here right now, so please leave a message and I'll call you back.' "Abby? Abby! Abby are you there?! It's Eric. Listen. It's Mom. I don't know where she is. I came home from work and all her stuff's gone. I've phones around everywhere but nobody's seen or heard anything. Is she with you? God knows what she's doing if she's not. Please, just call me back. My number's 0452.."

The machine clicked and cut out.

9.30pm - Hallway in Abby's apartment building.

"You're so beautiful you know that."

"Oh yeah?"

"Oh yeah..."

They began kissing against the door as Abby felt around in her pockets for her keys. She turned around, against Carter's moans of annoyance she wasn't facing him anymore. He continued kissing her neck as she fumbled the keys in the lock. Within seconds she had opened the door, managed to remove her coat and closed the door behind her without letting go of Carter. They carried on, standing in the middle of the apartment, as Carter's fumbling became quicker.

"Somebody wants some tonight!" Exclaimed Abby as Carter continued his groping.

"Tell me about it!" He mumbled through the kissing of her neck.

"John I need a shower first."

"Awww I prefer you dirty!"

"Ewww that's gross!"

"Fine. But you better come get me when you're done."

"Why? What are you gonna be doing?!"

"Watching 'Third Watch'."

"I thought you hated that stuff."

"I lied." A cheeky grin spread across his face and she laughed.

She hung her coat up on the stand and walked over to the answer machine where the red light flashed urgently. She pressed play and waited patiently for it to begin.

"You have one new message." Said the woman's voice strangely.

'Abby? Abby! Abby are you there?!....."

"Shit!" Said Abby when the message ended.

Carter had walked over to her when he heard Eric's worried voice.

"What's going on?"

"I don't know. Mom's decided to play a game of hide and seek."

"It's okay Abby. We'll find her."

"How? She could be anywhere by now. God this is sop typical of her."

"What?"

"Whenever something in my life goes right she has to fuck it all up again."

"Abby listen. She needs help. Our help. Don't worry about it okay? Did you get Eric's number?"

"No it cut out."

"Well do call back."

She rang back the number, and wrote the number down on the inside of her palm. She dialled the number and waited for an answer at the other end.

"Hello? Eric it's Abby. No she's not here. How can you not know where she is?! You're supposed to look after her! Well you're doing a great job of it aren't you. God Eric what am I supposed to do? Fine, fine! Well if you hear anything then call me. Yeah I'm gonna ring around, see if anyone's seen her. Yeah well it's better than doing nothing!"

She hung up the phone abruptly.

"Asshole." She exclaimed, referring to her brother.

"What did he say?"

"That he didn't know anything and I should start doing something for her for once instead of sitting around letting him do all the work."

"Okay well that's not really helpful but it's okay. We'll find her I promise."

"So where do we start? I mean she's not exactly predictable."

"Call the hospital. She might have gone there first."

"Why would she go there?"

"She did last time. Come on Abby it's worth a try."

"Fine." She picked up the receiver and dialled a number. She tapped her fingers on the side table and waited till somebody answered.

"Hello? Frank it's Abby. Yeah. Have you seen my Mother? No I mean today. Okay. Well if she decides to pay you a visit then call me? Thanks."

"She's not there."

"Okay well that's okay. Where would she go if she cam here?"

"A bar probably."

"Right. What bar?"

"Any."

"Well let's try all of them."

"All of them?! That'll take days John."

"So? We aren't gonna find her sitting about here are we?"

"I guess."

She grabbed her coat and he took her hand as they walked to the door. He opened it swiftly and went to step out, when he saw somebody standing in front of them.

"Maggie!" Exclaimed Carter.

"Mom what are you doing here?!" Shouted Abby as she grabbed Maggie and tried to caution her inside.

"Maggie?" Carter tried to get her attention, but she ignored them both and stared directly in front of them.

"She's ignoring us on purpose. It's one of her ways of getting attention." Sighed Abby as they pulled her into the apartment and put her on the couch. Maggie gave Abby an evil look as she said this, it annoyed her when Abby talked about her as if she wasn't there.

"Do you think she's hungry?" Asked Carter.

"I dunno. I'll make some tea and toast." She walked off to the kitchen and left Carter sitting with Maggie.

"So how are you Maggie?" Tried Carter.

She ignored him again.

"You know Abby and I just got back home, you almost missed us!" Tried Carter again.

"I've been waiting for ages." Said Maggie finally.

"You have?!" Exclaimed Carter.

"Where did you go?"

"Just to dinner. I thought she deserved a treat."

"Oh. Was it a date?!" She suddenly became very interested in the conversation.

"Um, something like that."

"What happened to that Euro doctor?" She asked nosily.

"They broke up." He smiled. "She wanted a real man!" He whispered near her ear.

She giggled and smiled to herself, thinking how she always preferred him to the other one. He certainly was handsome, Abby always seemed to get the good ones. She wondered if he was serious about her, it upset her to see Abby hurt.

"How long have you been dating?" She said, expecting him to say 'a couple of weeks' or 'a month or so'.

"Um..well probably almost a year now."

"Really?! She never even told me can you believe that?!"

"She does have her secrets sometimes."

"Tell me about it! So you think it's the real thing?!" She asked inquisitively.

"I think it's a pretty safe bet."

"Well I'm glad she's finally found somebody. She was always a bit of a drifter."

"Yeah? Well perhaps I like drifters." He said smiling a little.

"Obviously!"

Abby reappeared with a tea and some toast and placed them down on the table in front of Maggie.

"Mom you should eat something."

"Sure." She smiled at Abby and grabbed a piece of toast.

"So..what are you doing here?"

"I came to see you."

"Why?"

"Is a Mother not allowed to see her daughter once in a while?!"

"Yeah but not without ringing first, or telling Eric where you were going. He's worried about you."

"Oh Abby I'm not a kid. I don't need to ask permission to leave the house. I feel like I'm in prison!"

"Okay but you should call Eric. Just so he knows you're okay."

"Fine. But I'm not going back."

"Well where do you plan to stay?"

"A hotel or something."

"Don't be silly Maggie you can stay here." Butted in Carter. "Besides, we're looking for a new place anyway, you can help us find the perfect home."

"Really?! That sounds like fun!" Answered Maggie before Abby could voice her disapproval.

"But you behave yourself okay?"

"Sure."

Abby gave Carter an uneasy look and got up to tidy up the lounge a little.

"So how's everything?!" Asked Maggie to Abby.

"Fine. Thank you for asking."

"Anything I should know about?!" Continued Maggie.

"Like what?"

"Oh I don't know..how's work?"

"It's fine."

"And how's your love life?"

"It's fine." She tried to hide a smile from spreading but gave in.

"Abby?" Maggie looked at Carter and he was trying to hide the smiles. "Well I know you're moving in together you just told me."

"Yeah. That's it."

Carter turned around and gave Abby a pleading look. He wanted to tell Maggie they were engaged but Abby didn't want to risk her becoming excitable.

"What else?! I know there's something going on cos John here can't stop smiling!"

"Fine fine. We're getting married." She looked away from Maggie and pretended it was nothing.

"Abby that's wonderful news! Have you set a date yet?!"

"No. We only just decided a few weeks ago."

"A few weeks?! That's a long time! I can't believe you didn't tell me!"

"You know now."

"Well we better get started on the wedding plans!"

"Mom! That's why I didn't tell you!"

"What?"

"Cos you would start organising it and everything."

"So?! This is a big deal Abby!"

"Exactly what I think." Said Carter suddenly.

"See. John thinks so too."

"You do?" Asked Abby surprised.

"Yeah. Would you rather get married looking preg.." He stopped as Abby's eyes opened wide and she gave him a look to shut him up.

"What's that now?" Asked Maggie.

"Um.nothing."

"Weren't you about to say something?"

"Yeah but it's okay."

"Come on tell me!"

Carter looked over at Abby and gave her another pleading look.

"Fine!" Shouted Abby as she stormed off into the bedroom and slamming the door.

"What's wrong with her?" Asked Maggie.

"I don't know. Be right back."

He got up and walked down the hall to the bedroom. He opened the door and slowly walked in, closing it behind him.

"Abby? Sweetie what's wrong?"

There was no answer. He crept over to the bed and he saw a shadow on the other side sitting on the floor leaning against the bed.

"Abby?"

He moved round the bed and sat down next to her.

"Come on, tell me."

"It's nothing."

"Well it obviously is cos you're in here and we're out there."

"It's just..nothing."

"It's just what?"

"She turns up out the blue, expects a welcome greeting and acts as if nothing's happened. Why is she here? What does she want this time? What's she done wrong to make her come here in the first place? There's always something."

He put his arm around her and pulled her into him as he listened.

"Well maybe she just wanted to see you. It has been over a year now."

"I guess. But I don't trust her."

"Why don't you ask why she's here. I'll go get a video or something and leave you two to talk huh?"

"Thanks John. Why do you always know what to do?!"

"I have a natural talent for it!"

He kissed her head and she leant against his chest as she sighed deeply. A few minutes passed and they were still sitting by the bed as there was a tap on the door.

"Come in!" Said Carter as Abby stirred a little from her half-sleep.

"Sorry to interrupt but can I use your shower?"