Chapter 3:

One Month Later

Abby pushed her cart slowly down the isle of the grocery store, leaning most of her weight on the handle. It had been a long day in the ER, trauma's coming in one after another. She picked a bottle of soy sauce off the rack and tossed it into the cart.

Over the last few weeks, Abby was slowly getting over the hurt Carter had caused her but she felt far from mended. Her and Carter were able to work civilly on patients together but rarely discussed anything except work.

Once Abby had finished collecting all her groceries, she headed her cart towards the shortest checkout line up. It seemed everyone was doing their shopping at nine-thirty on a Friday night. The line up went halfway up the isle towards the back of the store! As customers slowly shuffled towards the cashier, Abby glanced impatiently at the clock hanging overhead. Her, Susan and Deb were going clubbing again that evening, she was meeting them at 10. As she watched the minute hand slowly ticking past nine-thirty, she had a strange feeling of light-headedness. Shaking her head in attempt to clear it, Abby focused again on the clock. What she remembered next was the ground rushing up to meet her and someone jumping over to catch her.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Abby, hey, Abby? Can you hear me?" A hand shook her shoulder.

"Hmm, go away, I don't want to go to school." Abby pushed at the hand disturbing her slumber.

"Come on Abby, wake up." The person shaking her would not leave her alone.

Abby opened her eyes slowly, one at a time. She blinked in attempt to focus them, and when she did, she saw the familiar face of Terry, the paramedic who frequently brought patients to County.

When he saw Abby's eye's open he smiled. "Hey there, welcome back to the world. We are going to get you on this stretcher here and take you out to the ambulance.

Abby tried to sit up. "No, no I'm fine. Just tired."

Terry wouldn't hear it. He gently lay her back down on the floor of the store. "You passed out and were gone for nearly eight minutes. We need to take you to the hospital.

"No Terry, I'm fine really. Just haven't had enough to eat today." Abby was so embarrassed by the stares of the people around her. She wanted to be out of the spotlight as soon as possible.

She sat up and tried to stand but another wave of dizziness and nausea forced her back into a sitting position. Abby realised she should go see a doctor. "All right I'll go as long as you don't use lights and sirens."

Terry promised and helped Abby onto the stretcher. During the entire ride to County, Abby watched the ceiling of the ambulance. She had a sinking feeling that she knew the cause of her fainting spell, but she desperately hoped she were wrong.

Upon arriving at the ER, she was whisked into a room by Haleh and Dr. Gallant, who seemed mildly uncomfortable examining Abby by himself. "Abby I'm just going to run some routine blood tests and depending on the results, send you up for a CAT scan." He nervously wrote the order for the blood-work on the chart and handed it to Haleh who was taking Abby's blood pressure.

He left the room, leaving Abby and Haleh alone. "Sweetie do you have any idea what may have caused you to faint?" Haleh fluffed the pillow beneath Abby's head and smoothed a wisp dark brown hair from her forehead.

Abby nodded her head miserably at Haleh. "I think so. I haven't had my period in almost two months." She closed her eyes, trying to sink completely into the starchy bed and disappear from the situation.

Haleh patted her hand gently. "There is no use worrying about it until you know for sure. Besides, if the test comes back positive, you will deal with it and it will all work out, you'll see."

"Thanks Haleh." Abby's eyes were still closed as she heard the door open and shut, signalling the nurse had left.

One hour later, Gallant confirmed her suspicions. Abby was two and a half months pregnant.