Chapter 2

"Abby!" I hear a voice shout my name. As I turn round there's nobody insight, well no one I recognise. The place is overrun with patients and not a single member of staff seems to be in evidence.

"Abby!" I turn again and then I see her grinning like a fool at me. I return the gesture and make my way over to where Susan is 'sat' on the floor.

Offering her my hand, I pull her to her feet. "What happened?"

Her infectious laughter causes me to laugh along with her. "I slipped."

"I can see that."

We head towards the admin desk where Frank is shaking his head muttering about patient workload and the lack of motivation in the staff.

"I was trying to hide." She then says sheepishly. I give her my best 'huh' look, which forces her to continue. "From Weaver." Now she's got me entirely confused. "She wants me to help her with a presentation she's giving to the board. So I've sorta being avoiding her all day."

She stops here as if that answers all my questions. "So what? You were running and slipped?"

"Yeah pretty much." She's grinning goofily again. "There was water on the floor and I went splat on my ass. Talking of my ass."

I watch amusedly as she tries to turn around and inspect her behind. She momentarily reminds me of a puppy dog chasing its tail. "Susan?"

"Hmm?" She replies somewhat distractedly.

"What about your ass?"

"Is it wet?"

"Susan, I don't think you realise this, but I have no desire what so ever to check out your ass." I deadpan, and then laugh again. She gives me an irritated look, but she can't hold it and falls into fits again. I guess I should tell her she's in the clear, but part of me is enjoying the entertainment value.

"What's so funny?" Carter asks as he approaches. I smile at him and then turn back to Susan, raising my eyebrows telling her to explain. When she doesn't, I give my slightly distorted version.

"Susan has concocted some plan where she is getting me to check out her, ahem, 'assets'." Susan retaliates sticking her tongue out at me. "Susan you're fine."

"Weaver!" she suddenly exclaims. And is still brushing down the back of lab coat as she scurries in the opposite direction to Kerry.

"Did you see where Susan went?" Kerry asks as she reaches us.

I manage to keep a straight face while I shrug and point towards the lounge, where I know she'll find Morris slacking off again. Two birds with one shot, score one for me.

"So? You going to tell me what that was about?" Carter asks once Kerry is out of earshot.

"Susan's trying to get out of a presentation with Weaver and in the process slid on some water landing on her ass."

He grins slightly, I guess you had to be there and see Susan sprawled on the floor to get the full affect.

"So you're a doctor today."

"What gave it away? The lab coat, or my ability to suture the next patient who walks through the door?" He grins at me, taking my comments light heartedly.

"What?" I ask as he continues to watch me.

"It's kinda working for ya."

I can't believe he just said that and I can't believe I'm actually starting to blush. I don't blush. But then again he's looking just as uncomfortable as me.

It's going to take a while for us to get used to the whole 'friends' routine.

I do the only thing I can do to take away the discomfort and blatantly change the subject. "You hear about the latest with Pratt and Gallants sister?"

"Nope?"

"Damn, I hoped you could have shed some gossip on this. Chuni's been on the mission for a week and hasn't come up with a thing."

"I guess you're going to have to find someone else to do your dirty work."

I laugh at this. Then something momentarily hits me. If this time last week someone would have told me I would be laughing and joking with Carter I wouldn't have believed them.

This is the fourth shift we've worked together, but only my second as a med student. Well since last time. The other two shifts we were both pretty busy, so we haven't really had chance to talk. I had expected him to at least call me, but he seems to be taking things slow, either that or he's waiting for me to make the first move.

"Well?"

"Huh?" I guess I must have drifted during his question.

"Do you want to go for lunch together?"

A part of me really wants to do this, but it's not that simple, so I'm reluctant to agree.

"I could help you study."

I bite down on my lip, actually contemplating it, then he seals the deal. "Come on Abby I can help you study for your exam next week that I heard you mention to Susan about and I can give you an energy boost and buy you some chocolate cake."

I smile slyly at him; he really knows which buttons to press. "Okay, but as long as I get ice-cream."

"Ice-cream." He mocks surprise at me. "But it's the middle of winter."

I flash him a smile as I pick up a chart and head over to exam 1.

*

Walking into the lounge I'm immediately confronted by Susan, who is sat on the sofa, her feet up, a coffee mug in one hand and a newspaper resting in her lap. I see she's having a busy shift.

"You and Carter seem to be on friendly terms."

"Is this your subtle way of asking me what's going on?"

"Pretty much, yeah." She smiles and sits up.

"To be honest I'm not sure."

"You want to grab some lunch?"

"I can't."

"Oh." She raises her eyebrows questioningly at me.

"Carter asked me first." Somehow Susan's eyebrows manage to rise a further notch, before almost falling off the sofa.

Laughing, I make my way over to grab my things from my locker. A slight attempt to avoid her questions, in all honesty I know it won't work. Luckily my saviour arrives in the unlikeliest form.

"Ah Susan. Just the person."

"Kerry?" Susan responds in all innocence.

"Follow me. I have something to ask you."

I watch, with a slight smirk on my face that doesn't go unnoticed by Susan, as she reluctantly gets up and follows the chief of staff.

*

I decided to wait for Carter across the road. He'd been caught by a frequent flyer and there was no way I was getting roped in. So I had smiled sweetly and motioned that I would meet him over the road at 'Ikes'.

The menu for all it's worth is a bit better than Docs but the prices match so it isn't exactly better. I'm rereading the main course section when for the second time in as many minutes the waitress comes over to ask for my order. So figuring it would save time, I order for the both of us. Guessing that Carter's tastes in food and drink wouldn't have changed that much in the last six months.

"I can't believe you left me to deal with that." Carter grumbles as he sits down opposite me. Which causes me to smirk slightly.

We sit in silence for what feels like hours as I play with my napkin and he irritatingly drums his fingers on the table.

I guess I didn't think about the logistics about this whole 'aloneness' together.

"The waitress is taking a while to come over." Carter finally breaks the silence and relief momentarily blows over me.

"Um, yeah. I ordered for you. I hope it's okay." I try to give him a confident smile, but maybe what I did was a little too personal. He's currently giving me a weird look, which I can't interpret, and the fact that I can't work it out irritates me slightly.

"It's fine." His words come out clipped, but luckily for me the waitress chooses that moment to bring over our food and the look on Carter's face as he sees what he orders brings a smile to my face.

"You remembered."

I nodded and started to tuck into my toasted sandwich.

*

"I hope you're not busy tonight, because I have a bottle of lemonade, chips and a comedy chick flick with our names on it. I'll be there at seven!" Is the message left on my answer machine.

Looking at my watch a groan slips from my lips as I realise it's 6:45. A quick wash, then I change into my sweats and I'm good to go.

*

"It was weird."

"Weird how?" The movie had finished and we were sat munching the cold pizza on my old sofa.

"I don't know, I mean I knew it was going to be hard. I just didn't realise how hard it would be." Susan was giving me a sympathetic look, which really isn't helping, but this is something I need to get off my chest.

"Last week we decided to start over as friends. And then he doesn't call, but maybe I should have called him. It was a mutual decision and maybe he was waiting for me to make the first move. But it doesn't matter." I shake my head knowing that I'm rambling, but it's helping sort things out in my head. "Then today we were joking at admin. It was like we'd gone back in time for a second."

"What did he say?" Susan asked me quietly, she didn't want to break my train of thought, but this was Susan and she wouldn't be happy until she knew all the details.

"Just some comment about my lab coat." I gesture the absurdity with my hands and see the confusion on her face, but right now I don't want to elaborate. "At the time I was embarrassed and now it just seems strange that we could slip back into relationship mode. Then I tried changing topics and he asked me out to lunch."

I take that opportunity to sip some more of the lemonade Susan brought round. The bittersweet taste catching me slightly off guard and I shiver involuntarily.

"You okay?" I nod, and then she asks me. "What happened at lunch? You seemed so excited to go and afterwards you avoided me and him and then ran off before I could talk to you."

"I just made a stupid mistake and I knew at the time it was dumb, I just figured it would save time if I ordered for us. I'd just get him his favourite and I figured he'd be happy. And he was fine, it was just he was initially annoyed that I'd done something so personal, but then he saw what I'd ordered and he seemed fine. But it didn't exactly start us off on the right footing." I'm rambling again.

So I pause to reassess my thoughts. Leaning forward I place my head in my hands, and then Susan's hand come to rest reassuringly on my arm.

"And it's not like we even argued." I begin again. "We just couldn't find out the right level to where we stood. It's like we'd forgotten how to talk and everything we could talk about seemed sort of taboo. Africa was hanging over us like a black cloud and everything we said came back to that.

"Maybe it was a mistake in even thinking we could start over. I was trying to be all strong in front of him, but I don't know." I shrug to signify my complete bewilderment over everything.

"Abby… Abby look at me." I sit up and face her, wondering what words of wisdom she wants to bestow upon me. "You are strong, you managed not to break down when he left. You've put your life back together and your doing really well for yourself and you should be proud."

I glance away at her compliments, but she knows it's what I need to hear so she continues. "I know things are hard for you right now and you've got more baggage than last time you tried this. But you've got past the worst of it and I'm sure he's feeling as insecure as you are right now. So next time you see him, set up some ground rules and work out how you can start being friends again."

"I know." I do know she's right. So I whisper, "I just couldn't bear to get close to him and then have him leave me again." And that's the real fear I have right now and as I look back at Susan I know she realises it to.

Authors Notes: Thanks to *anonymous* for telling me to get creative while at work!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter, it eventually gave me the motivation to write part 2.

Just a little ps, Chapter 10 of 'Trouble' is ready to roll and I've been assured that it will be up at The Lounge this weekend and at Lyns's site at some point soon.