Five months earlier.
"Carter?"
"Yeah, its me."
Abby heard the door open to her apartment. She quickly hides the bottle she is holding under her pillow and comes out of her bedroom into the hall.
Carter walks towards her, smiling. He goes to kiss her on the lips. Abby quickly ducks away and walks towards the kitchen.
"How was your shift?"
Carter looks confused before answering Abby's question.
"It was okay. It was quiet actually."
"I don't believe you, the words county and quiet don't go together!"
Carter takes his coat off and heads through to the bedroom.
"Well, I'm telling the truth. It was quiet, the quietest it's been in a long time."
"I'll just have to take your word for it" says Abby as she chews on a bit of chewing gum, which she found in a pack on the kitchen table.
Carter looks back out the bedroom door to see his girlfriend sitting down on the sofa, pressing buttons on the television remote, probably looking for that melodramatic medical soap that she always watches.
As he continues to watch Abby, Carter searches under the bed pillows for his pyjamas. He smiles, he knows her. He knows everything about her. What shows she likes, the perfume she likes to wear, what she cries at, how many….
Carter is awakened from his thoughts when his hand brushes over something. He grasps the object and brings it out into view.
Abby sighs as she presses the red button on the remote.
"Carter, do you want to order a pizza or something? I'm starving." Abby shouts to Carter as she looks in the fridge for a can of soda.
"Carter?"
Abby looks towards the bedroom as she takes the can of Diet Coke out of the fridge and sees him standing at the door, bottle in hand.
"Looking for something stronger?"
"Carter, I.."
"You what? You want the drink? Here, take it!"
Carter walks towards Abby and shoves the bottle into her hands.
Abby throws the half empty bottle on the couch.
"Carter, I know what you must be thinking but…"
"Do you Abby? You know what I'm thinking? That's funny, because I thought I knew what you thought too but I've just been proved wrong."
Carter walks back into the bedroom. Abby follows him.
"Its not what its seems Carter. I didn't tell you because I knew you'd react like this!" Abby blurts out before Carter can interrupt her for a third time.
"I just, I just have the occasional drink. I'm not drinking to get drunk." Abby sits down on the bed as Carter grabs his coat and car keys and heads out of the room. Abby stands up and runs ahead of him, blocking his exit.
"Don't leave, please. Stay here, we can work this out."
"Oh really? I just can't believe you'd keep this from me. Were you ever going to tell me? Or were you just going to wait until I came home one night and find you on the floor?"
Abby looks down to the ground.
"Maybe I'm being selfish here, but I don't want you to drink."
Abby moves her eyes from the floor up to Carter's face, hoping that this might help her to think of something to say to him.
"I worry about you Abby and I don't want to have to worry about you anymore. I don't want to come home every night, worrying whether I'll find you collapsed unconscious on the floor. I don't want you to ruin you're life Abby, I can't let you do that, I.."
Abby interrupts.
"I am not ruining my life. Drinking just..it just makes me feel like I'm normal, like everyone else. You don't have anything to worry about. Carter, I.. I love you and I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, you know that!"
Abby steps closer to Carter, putting her hand on his shoulder. Carter pushes it away and walks past her and out of the bedroom.
"Carter, please."
Carter stops just as he opens the front door to the apartment. Not turning round to look at Abby, he clears his throat.
"I need time to think things over, I'm going home."
With that, he opens the door and closes it again.
Home. One word, which shatters Abby's heart. He always had said that his home was wherever she was. She had always laughed at him, joking that he was being
corny, but she knew she felt the same way. Now though, he was going home, away from her.
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Carter stares across at Abby as she swallows another mouthful of her drink while chatting to Chuny. He suddenly regrets agreeing to come to this party.
"Some party this is, everyone's either not talking to each other, or talking too much."
Susan looks over to where the newest recruit to the ER gang, Erin Harkins is talking to Luka.
Carter doesn't say anything, feeling bad that Susan's not having a good time at her own party and looks over again to where Abby is standing. He catches her staring at him.
Abby quickly looks away from Carter's gaze, taking another drink from her drink, a diet coke. She wanted to show Carter that she didn't have to drink, and that what she had said two nights ago, the night of their big fight, was true.
"So, then I… Abby? Abby?"
Abby snaps out of her thoughts as Chuny waves her hands in front of her face. Abby tries desperately to remember what Chuny was talking about.
"Look whatever you two are fighting about, I wish you would sort it out. Go and talk to him."
Abby knows that Chuny is right, she should go and talk to him. But not here, not in front of everyone.
"Abby, go and talk to him now, or do I have to drag you over there?"
"Chuny, stay out of it." Abby states before walking away, avoiding Carter's gaze.
Abby feels like she is back at her high school spring formal. Carter was like Seth Jeffers. She had spent the whole night fighting with him because he had come to pick her up when she asked him not to, she didn't want him to meet her mom. Luckily Maggie hadn't been in when he arrived, but Abby was still mad at Seth and made damn well sure he knew it.
Luka sees Abby going in to the bedroom. He follows her, staggering away from Erin. At first he just stands at the door, watching her searching for her coat amongst the pile on the bed.
Abby wipes a tear away from her cheek as she hears a floorboard move behind her. Thinking its Carter, she turns around quickly.
"Luka, hi."
Abby can't help but feel disappointed as Luka makes his way over to where she is standing.
"Are you leaving?" Luka mutters.
"Yeah, I think I'm just going to head home."
"Carter not going with you?" Luka asks.
"No, I'm working tomorrow, so I really should get going."
"Did you and him have a fight?"
Abby turns bag to the bed, spots her jacket and picks it up.
"I really have to get going Luka."
Abby tries to walk past Luka but he moves in front of her.
"Did he hurt you Abby?"
Abby stops moving, shocked at Luka's words.
"What do you mean did he hurt me? Of course he didn't, he would never hurt me!"
"I care about you Abby. I want to see you happy."
"Well, I am happy, when I'm with Carter."
"You're not happy now though, are you?"
"That's because we had a fight. This will all blow over soon, it was just a stupid fight."
"So you did have a fight?"
"Okay, we had a fight, a dumb, stupid fight, which.."
Abby, finding herself getting more worked up, is shocked when Luka puts his hand on Abby's cheek.
"Luka, you're drunk, why don't you…"
Luka interrupts Abby by replacing his hand with his lips, kissing her on the cheek.
He places kisses down the side of her face, until he reaches her mouth. He stops, looks her in the eyes and kisses her on the lips.
At first Abby tries to push him away but she soon finds herself kissing him back.
After about twenty seconds, Abby realises what she is doing and stops the kiss.
"Abby…"
"Luka, just leave me alone.."
Abby grabs her coat once more from the bed.
"..Leave me alone"
Abby runs out of the bedroom and out into the hall. Seeing Carter coming towards her she carries on running out of Susan's apartment.
Carter stops as he sees Abby run out of the apartment. He was going to apologise to her for the way he reacted a few nights before.
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Tears roll down Abby's cheeks as she throws clothes, toiletries, photos and whatever comes to hand into a black suitcase.
After scribbling down a note she carries her suitcase and other belongings down to her car. I takes her about five trips but she soon finds herself looking around for the last time before closing the door.
As she pulls away from the kerb to head of on her journey, Abby coughs, trying to get rid of the sickening feeling in the back of her throat. She doesn't notice Carter's jeep pull-up into the space she left only a few seconds ago.
Carter doesn't notice her either, he's too busy figuring out what to say to her. He steps out of the jeep and slowly makes his way up to Abby's apartment after opening the main door with the keys, which he has had since that day when they were let out of quarantine.
As Carter knocks on Abby's door he thinks back to how angry he was at himself when he left her house a few days ago. He knew straight away that he was wrong. He shouldn't have been so harsh and short with her. He would have gone back and spoken to her then but he needed a chance to cool down.
After a while Carter realised that either Abby wasn't in or she was refusing to open the door to him. He lets himself in with his key to find that the apartment is dark, and cold. He hits the light switch and looks around. The apartment looks messy. Clothes are lying all over the floor and he notices that some photos are missing. His heart starts to beat faster as he begins to fear that the apartment has been broken in to. He goes over to where the phone is to call the police and sees a bit of paper next to it. Opening it up, he notices that it is Abby's handwriting.
"I'm sorry, I have to leave. It's not your fault. I'm sorry."
And that was that. It was over. Throwing the tear stained note onto the floor, Carter doesn't know at the time, that he will not see Abby again for a while.
The next 5 months are going to be hard, very hard.