Thanks for all the great reviews! :) Sorry the update has been a while in coming, but we promise it won't be so long next time. Just as long as you review!!!! :-D We've included the name of a game show host over here in the UK in this fic: her name's Cilla Black, and she hosts a show called Blind Date. We didn't know an American version, so we just used that. Sorry! :) As always please let us know what you think! Jo & Lise xx
Part Three
"Gallant! Why is Mrs Walker still here?!"
"Waiting on some labs Dr. Carter..."
"Gallant, now you're a resident you can call me Carter!"
"Is that meant to be a privilege Carter?!" Susan laughed, rubbing a patient off the board.
"Hey Susan, is Mr. Palowski meant to be claiming he's sharing a cubicle with the devil?!"
"Anything's possible in this place..." she sighed and grabbed the chart, conveniently leaving Carter standing next to Abby...
She stood writing for a second, and glanced up and him, then at Susan who no longer seemed to care that Mr. Palowski was squealing for mercy to an IV stand. She motioned for Abby to say something, but in return she got a withering look. The tension was evident to everyone around, it was as though the temperature dropped to Arctic temperatures.
"Hey," he said tentatively, grinning slightly.
"Hey," she returned.
They carried on charting for a few moments, taking sly glances at each other, finally neither one looked away fast enough and they gained sufficient eye contact...
"Wanna get some coffee later?" he prompted, making the first move
"Sure, in about 10 minutes?"
He nodded and stepped away backwards, maintaining the eye contact, finally turning away to knock the chart out of Susan's hands.
Abby snorted, Carter walked off embarrassed, and Susan grinned... "Just call me Cilla Black!"
Abby wrinkled her nose, and shrugged... it was only coffee.
***
Susan flopped down on the couch, pushing her hair out of her face. She was exhausted already, and her shift had only started two hours ago.
"Tired?" Deb asked from her place by the coffee maker.
"Yeah. Being a match maker's a tiring business," she replied, and they both laughed.
"Who have you been match making then? Anything exciting going on that I should know about?"
"I've been trying to sort our resident love birds out...things aren't great." She sighed. "They're so in love it makes me sick, and so stupid it makes me mad."
"That bad?" Susan nodded. "What happened, was it Africa?"
"I dunno...I feel bad revealing what Abby said to me to someone else. Private conversation, you know?"
"Yeah, sorry." Deb nodded, and held up a coffee cup. "Want one?"
"Nah, trying to cut back on my caffeine. Already had five cups this morning." They both laughed whilst Deb poured herself a coffee. "Abby made him give her keys back."
"What? I didn't realise it was that..."
"Susan?" Chuny asked as she came through the door, interrupting. "You seen Carter?" She looked at her watch. He should be about to go meet Abby for coffee. She wasn't gonna let him get caught by work now.
"Nope, sorry. Why?"
"I need him - for Mr. Palowski."
"Mr. Palowski's my patient," Susan replied, getting up. "What's wrong?"
"He just crashed...started yelling something about a demon reaching into his chest and grabbing his heart, and then collapsed onto the floor."
"Oh no..."
***
As Deb and Susan ran towards Mr. Palowski, Abby entered the lounge to find a distinct lack of Carter.
She pulled open her locker, with more force than she intended, sending the pictures decorating the inside of the door to the floor.
One was of Susan (with cocktail umbrellas in her hair), Deb and herself on a night out last year... they hadn't done that in a long while.
"You dropped this." He held out the other photo.
"Carter! You made me jump!" she shouted, once again with more force than she intended.
"Sorry... It's a great picture though." he looked reminiscent: it was a good shot of them. It had been taken at Christmas, round at Susan's... they were curled up together on a bean bag, pulling "whatever" faces at each other.
They stood in silence for a second, neither one knowing exactly how to break the ice.
"Look Abby, I'm just gonna say this... I know I messed up, I know I shouldn't have gone like I did, but at the time, everything seemed to be so complicated... I didn't know where to turn next!"
She snorted, interrupting his speech, "You could've tried turning to me John."
"I know, I know. While I was in Africa, it gave me chance to think. I missed you Abby! I know you don't believe me, but it made me realise how much you mean to me, you keep me grounded, you stop me doing stupid things I'd usually do, usually say...
"I don't want us to end like this..." he whispered.
She accepted the coffee he offered and placed it on the floor, walking across to him she wrapped her arms around him, both relishing the moment.
It was soon shattered.
"Carter? Phone call, line 2. Someone called Gillian?" Chuny called through the door.
"Who's Gillian?!" He cringed inwardly at the harsh tone of her voice.
***
More soon! Please review. Thanks! :)