AN: thank you for all the tiniest itsiest pieces of encouragement I received for chapter 1! Here's chapter 2, with the promised Suby & Carsan. Sorry if it seems a bit stilted in a kind of 'he said, she said' kind of way, but this is my first attempt at dialogue from no-one in particular's point of view, so I hope it's not too confusing...

SUMMARY: Susan's playing matchmaker...

SPOILERS: none, if you know who Kem is.

DISCLAIMER: please, even TPTB couldn't mess up this badly...

ACT II, Scene 1

Abby smiled quickly down at her chart, before quickly rearranging her face into an expression that she hoped was suitably bored as she looked at the chart of a 40 year old man with a broken toe. She could see Susan looking over at her, and knew why, having overheard strains of her conversation with Chuny.

Still, as Susan wandered over with an attempt at what Abby thought was probably supposed to be nonchalance, but actually just gave the impression that she was slightly inebriated, Abby appeared enrapt in her chart.

Susan gave her several significant glances, but Abby refused to respond, apparently utterly absorbed in her contemplation of the piece of paper in front of her.

Susan gave up.

"So...?" she said, a mischievous grin creeping into her countenance.

"So what? .............Susan, stop looking at me like that!" She was doing her utmost not to smile, and failing miserably.

"So, I heard..."

Still feigning innocence, Abby questioned, "You heard what?"

Susan sighed. Some people were so, well, irritating.

"About Kem...she's not coming back."

"And?"

"Well? Have you spoken to Carter?"

The small smile that had escaped Abby's lips grew a little, "Not since he told me last week", she said.

"He told you last week? Why don't I know about this, Abby?"

"I hate to interrupt this nice little heart to heart", Kerry interrupted without any visible sign of remorse, "but there's a trauma coming in, and we're two nurses down"

Abby heard Susan say under her breath, "That witch. I swear she knows when we're getting to the decent gossip."

"Oh, she's not that bad", Abby said, her eyes finally leaving her chart as she looked back over her shoulder at Susan with a smile.

"Whatever. You're not off the hook yet. We're continuing this conversation later."

*****

Scene 2 Susan made as if to walk past Abby, who was doing the inventory, but then, noticing Abby, took a step back.

"You still love him."

Abby sighed, rolling her eyes to the ceiling good humouredly, "Ok, now you're talking crazy."

"And yet you knew who I was talking about before I even said his name." Susan watched as Abby guiltily resumed stacking the drugs in front of her. "Look at me."

"What?" Abby looked over, her confusion genuine this time.

"Look me in the eye and tell me that you don't love him"

Trademark eye-roll #two. But she looked at Susan's face and realised that she wasn't having any of it.

So she surrendered, meeting Susan's eyes with a steely gaze of her own, and said, her face completely composed, "I don't love him". It was surprisingly easy.

"Ok...now look me in the eyes and say 'I don't love John Carter'"

Abby maintained her composure, and, imitating Susan's intonation immaculately, said "I don't love John Carter"

"Abby! You're unbelievable! Literally. I don't believe you."

Abby rolled her eyes, but was soon aware that Susan's attention was elsewhere, and as she looked across the ER she saw Luka striding towards the lounge.

"...hey, let's ask Luka...Luka! .............Luka!" Susan yelled.

"Susan, stop it!" He hadn't noticed, and the lounge door swung shut. Thank heaven for small mercies. But she still had Susan to contend with.

"Don't worry. I'll speak to Carter for you instead."

"Susan," she said, her voice serious this time, the warning tone of it obvious.

"Ok, ok, I won't if you don't want me to. But you two...I don't know...you just have your whole little thing going on, you know?"

Abby shook her head, smiling, as she walked away, saying, "I've got patients to see," but her face quickly became serious as she walked away, not quite convinced by Susan's reassurances.

*****

Scene 3 A week later, when all Susan's attempts to procure an admission from Abby with regard to her feelings for Carter had proved fruitless, Susan saw her opportunity when she came across Carter sitting in the lounge. She would be subtle. If the impossible pair couldn't do it for themselves then she would do it for them. And Abby needn't worry. She would be the Queen of discretion.

"Hey, Carter."

"Hey."

"How are you?"

"Yeah I'm good. You?"

Susan grinned as she said, "Overworked and underpaid"

"Aren't we all?"

Yeah, because we all know how short of money the Carters are. Out loud, she said "How's Kem?"

"Yeah, she's fine. Had the baby. He's cute. Real cute."

"He is, huh? You miss her?"

"Not so much."

Susan congratulated herself for checking out how things stood with Carter, before getting to the point, "You miss Abby?"

"Where the hell did that come from?!"

Oops. Maybe that wasn't quite as subtle. Still, at least it had got a reaction from him. There was no going back now. She pressed on, "Come on, carter. Did you really think I hadn't noticed?"

"There's nothing to notice."

"Give me some credit."

"How's Chuck?"

"Carter! Stop trying to change the subject!" But she couldn't help breaking into a smile, as she said, "He's fine. We're fine. I'm expecting."

"Congratulations! That's great!...." He hesitated, checking up, "It is great, right?"

"Yep. I mean, it was a bit of a surprise, but we're really happy," she assured him.

"Does Abby know?"

God, she knew he was besotted with Abby, but she hadn't realised that it was this bad. She pounced on the perfect opportunity he had presented her with. "Hah!" she said, and she saw Carter become resigned as he took in his mistake

"What?" was all he said.

But Susan had him, and he knew it. He watched as her face lit up with the satisfaction of being right. "See!" she said, "Everything comes back to Abby with you. What does Abby think about Kem? About Kem's baby? About Kem's not coming back? About Susan's baby? About me? I don't know how you two thought you could get away with all those sneaky glances. Certainly not with me around you can't. And I'm not the only one who's noticed."

"Who else...?"

"Everyone...Luka, Chuny, Haleh, Malik....it's a pretty hot topic when you're not around. Hell, even Pratt's noticed. And he has to be the most insensitive second year resident in Chicago. Or anywhere, for that matter." She paused, before saying slowly, "Kem knew too, right?"

"I don't know. I mean she knew there was history with us and stuff...maybe she had her suspicions..."

Wow. She had expected him to brush it off, or to lie, to have had to push him further. The last thing she had expected was honesty. Suddenly, Carter looked very tired. But she couldn't help the self-satisfied smile which spread itself over her face.

Carter looked vaguely amused, as he said "What?"

"I finally did it. I finally got Dr John Carter to admit to his undying and everlasting love for Abby Lockhart."

"I never said that!", Carter said, in a futile attempt to persuade Susan that he felt otherwise. "And anyway," he continued "they mean the same thing."

"What?"

"Undying and everlasting. They mean the same thing."

"Whatever carter." She ignored Carter's pedantic nitpicking, and chanted in a singsong voice "Carter's in luurve."

"Susan! Stop it!"

"Stop what?" Susan asked with wide-eyed innocence.

"Behaving like a 13-year-old."

"I can't help it. I was always young for my age...neglected as a child, you know?"

"Seriously, Susan. This goes no further, right?"

"Funny. That's exactly what Abby said." Now she had his full attention. She was good at this.

"She said something?"

"Ok, well not exactly. But she's in denial."

"What did she say?"

"I think you should talk to her yourself." Damn, she was good. But he wasn't exactly making it hard for her.

Carter turned away, fumbling with some charts. "I can't."

"Why the hell not? You're both mature adults. It's not like you don't know her well enough."

"I knew her. Or thought I did."

"Nothing's changed."

"She has. She's changed. I wanted her to. I'm just not sure I ever really believed she would. And I thought that if she did, she would change when I was around, not that I would come back from Africa and find a different person living in Abby's apartment." He looked up at the amused expression on Susan's face. "Ok," he amended, "maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But she just seems different, somehow."

God, they were as bad as each other. Susan's exasperation was, she hoped, obvious, as she said, "Carter, you ran off and broke her heart! You can hardly expect her to be the same."

"I left her broken hearted! Susan, I think we both know that Abby was never as into me as I was into her."

"Maybe you don't know her as well as I thought you did, Carter. Why is it that everyone except you and her can see that she's more in love with you than...I don't know...Juliet was with Romeo?"

"She doesn't exactly seem heartbroken to me," Carter said petulantly.

Susan sighed. "That's just Abby, carter. You know that as well as anyone. It's just her way of dealing. Sometimes I wish I could just bang your heads together. Or maybe you need to be quarantined again?"

"It had its perks. But no thanks."

Susan paused, before saying what she'd been waiting to say, "Promise me something?"

"What?"

"Promise me you'll talk to her? You don't even have to tell her that you're madly in love with her and can't live another moment without her. Well, not for now, at any rate. But just promise me that you'll spend at least ten minutes with her?"

"Yes, mom."

Susan smiled at him as she left the lounge, saying, "See you tomorrow, Carter"

"See you," Carter said to the empty room, his mind already elsewhere.

*****

please review! Not sure where it's headed next, as I'm kinda writing two fics at the same time, and I'm not sure whether I'm going to combine them or perhaps swap the endings over. Either way, you can expect more