Hey everybody! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, things have been crazy. I'm glad you all seem to be enjoying the story though : ) I'm sorry if there's any confusion with the characters, I know I threw a lot of new ones in the last chapter. So here's a list, hopefully it'll help.

Maggie - Well, that's Abby's mom. If you didn't know that already though, you should go back and watch seasons 7-9.

Mike - Maggie's husband; Abby and Eric's stepfather.

Alessandra - Christina's best friend; Antonio's daughter. After Antonio died, Maggie and Mike adopted her.

Antonio - He was engaged to Abby; he's Alessandra's father. He died two years ago.

Jason - Christina's boyfriend.

Eric - He hasn't come into the story yet, but he was mentioned in this chapter. He's Abby's brother; but again if you didn't know that already, you might want to watch seasons 8-9.

Sandy - Eric's wife, she was just mentioned, she'll be in the story later.

I think that's it for the characters I introduced in the last chapter. I hope that cleared any confusion up. Now in some chapters, I'll skip over a couple of days or weeks, because I don't want this story dragging on so much to where it'll get boring.

Disclaimer: If I owned them, season 10 would be a whole lot different than it is right now. I do own the characters I make up though, so at least I get something, right? : ) Oh yeah, I also don't own the song in this chapter either. It's called "Don't Let Go" and it's by En Vogue.

This chapter is from Abby's POV.

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I stood outside the door and watched my daughter, and her father. She was asleep, and he was sleeping in the chair next to the bed. I never imagined this. I never thought my child would one day be in the same room with her father. I know now that telling him was the right thing to do. For once, I didn't mess up. I told him he had a daughter, and it made him happy. That's what I wanted, to make Carter happy, not to disappoint him.

I quietly slipped into the room, but I guess I wasn't quiet enough. Carter stirred a little bit, and then woke up.

"Morning." I whisper, careful not to wake Christina. "I brought you some coffee."

"Thanks." He gratefully accepted the coffee and looks down at our sleeping daughter. "She's amazing.."

"I know." I sit down on the other side of the bed.

"She's exactly like you Abby."

"Unfortunately"

"No, that's why she's amazing." I smile at him, because I know he means it.

"I love her so much already.."

"She loves you too, she always has really. Even when she was younger" He looked at me, and he seemed confused, so I continued. "I wanted her to know about you, even though I didn't tell her you were her father, I still told her about you. I told her stories about you, and she loved them. She always thought you were amazing, and funny too. Her favorite story, was when I broke Luka's fish tank, and I made you break into his place with me." I smiled, remembering that day.

"Ah, yes. The day you almost got us thrown in the slammer."

"I did not."

"I hope being a criminal didn't rub off on our daughter."

"Don't worry, she knows better." We share a laugh, and I realize just how much I've missed him. "We should wait outside, let her rest before everyone else gets here." We walk down to the ER to see what's going on. Hopefully nobody pulls us into a trauma.

"Abby, do you need any money for her or anything? Like..for her college fund?"

"No." I say, sitting down in a chair outside and exam room. He sits next to me, and I continue. "We have enough money. I have enough to send her to college. I've been saving up since before she was born."

"So she has everything she needs?"

"John, all she needs is a father. Just be her father. That's it. We don't need your money, or a place to live. We have all of that." He nodded and we sat in silence for a moment.

"I'm sorry about Antonio."

"How did you know about him?"

"Christina told me last night."

"Oh"

"Were you planning on telling me about him?" Is he serious?

"Why would I tell you about him? It's none of your business. You have no right to ask me about him. You lost that right when you left me."

"I didn't leave you."

"How can you say that? How can you sit here and say that you didn't leave me? I begged you to stay with me John, and I've never begged for anything in my life. You made one promise to me, and that was that you would never leave me. You couldn't even kept that promise. You walked away from me. From our child, from EVERYTHING we had. You just left me, and I didn't even know why. I had every right to get on with my life and fall in love with someone else. That's exactly what I did." I was really angry by now, angry at him for being so stupid and insensitive.

"I had to get away, I needed time to think, and I needed time away from here. Too many things were happening all at once, I felt like I was losing you in the midst of it all. If I'd had known you were pregnant, I wouldn't have left."

"You could have told me that! We could have worked things out. We could have talked. Instead you left me behind, you thought you were losing me and your answer to it all was to leave me. I'm glad I didn't know I was pregnant then, because you would have stayed with me out of pity, and we would have been even more miserable."

"No, because that baby could have saved us. It could have been the solution to all of our problems."

"Well we'll never know now." By now, we're standing and yelling. The whole ER is watching, but it doesn't seem to matter.

"You know, you left me too. I came back and you were gone."

"I had no reason to wait for you, for all I knew we were over. I wasn't going to sit on my ass and wait for you to come back to me." He knew I was right. He had that look in his eyes. He'd been defeated. He pulled me into an exam room so we could finish our argument in private. I was done arguing though. "You know, I loved you so much, and you broke my heart. I let myself trust you, because I thought you were the one." I stopped then, because I knew if I went on, I would end up telling him that even after what happened, I still think love him and I still think he's the one.

"I loved you too."

"Why didn't you tell me that? It could have changed so many things."

"I was afraid you didn't love me."

"I was afraid too." That's when I couldn't hold my tears back anymore. I sobbed, and before I knew it, he was right there. He wrapped his arms around me, and we cried.

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I'm not sure how long we sat in that exam room, sobbing in eachother's arms. All I know was that I felt better. I had said all the things I'd been wanting to say for sixteen long years. It felt good to be in his arms again.

"Abby?"

"Yeah?"

"We should get back to Christina, we've been in here for almost a half hour, you're family's probably here by now." I nodded and untangled myself from his embrace. I began to walk out the door but he gently grabbed me by the arm.

"Abby, I'm sorry about all the pain I caused you."

"I'm sorry too."

"Do you think we can move past it?"

"Yeah, as long as we take it one step at a time." He smiled and pulled me into a hug before we headed back upstairs.

My family hadn't arrived yet, and the only other person in the room when we get there was Susan.

"Ah, great show you two put on this morning." Susan announced as we came into the room.

"Yeah well, you all seemed so bored down there. We thought we'd juice things up a bit." I say sitting down in the chair next to the bed.

"I miss everything!" Christina whines.

"Be glad you weren't there." Susan pipes up.

"Okay you guys, really lets just drop it." I really don't want to talk about this right now. Thankfully, the family walks in the room and saves me from my torment. Eric and Sandy are with them this morning.

"Hey sis." He says, coming over to hug me.

"Hey Eric." I see him scan the room to see who else is in there. His eyes settle on Carter.

"John, long time no see." He says sticking out his hand, which Carter politely shakes.

"How have you been?" Carter asks, making small talk.

"Great, you?"

"Never better." I think that's the end of that conversation.

"Who's that?" Sandy whispers to me.

"John Carter, Christina's father."

"Wow, you picked a good one Ab." I laugh, but I know it's true too.

"How are you, Christie?" I hear Eric ask.

"Well, you know.had a ruptured spleen, broke some bones. I've really never felt better."

"You been playin' ball?"

"That's what got me into this mess."

Everybody sat around, talked, and joked for most of the day. Occasionally Carter, Susan, and I would have to go down to the ER when they needed help. It was nice though when we were all together. It was like, we had John now and that made us a complete family. He was our missing piece.

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Two weeks had passed since the accident, since Carter 'became a father', and since our argument in the middle of the ER. Christina was home. Someone was always staying with her though. It was Susan's day today, since she had the day off. My family was back in New York, which I'm happy about. Don't get me wrong, I love them all, but there were just too many people in Susan's small house. Carter and I...well we were doing good. It's like time had never really passed, and we'd never stopped talking.

"Hey." Carter walked into the lounge where I'd been hiding out for the past fifteen minutes.

"Please don't tell me you need me for a trauma.."

"I just came in here for some coffee." I breath a sigh of relief and hand him a mug. "Tired?"

"Exhausted. This has been the longest shift since I've been back in Chicago."

He sat down next too me. So close that I could smell his cologne. It's so intoxicating, and all I really want to do in this very moment is pull him into my arms and kiss him. I know I've been staring at him because he turns his head and our eyes meet. We stare at eachother for a long time before he leans in towards me. We're inches apart and the moment I've been waiting for, for so many years is about to finally happen. We're so, so close. But of course the annoying sound of his pager goes off.

"I.." He seems so lost for words. "I have to take this." His voice is barely above a whisper. He slowly gets up and walks out of the room. Maybe it's for the better. After all, we did agree to just be friends. We can't go down that road again. Especially not now, we have a child. It's not just about the two of us anymore.

My shift is over, so I leave the hospital. Luckily I didn't run into Carter on the way out.

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I lie in bed and try for at least an hour to fall asleep. I can't though. All I can think about is Carter, and what almost happened in the lounge. I look over at the clock and those annoying bright red digits read 11:00. I know he's been home for a good half hour by now. I slip out of the bed and go get dressed. I have to go see him. We have to talk.

I stand outside his door, and I'm afraid to knock. I should just turn around and go home, but something's keeping me here. So I knock. He answers the door, and he's still wearing his scrubs.

"I uh..I have no idea why I'm here." I say, because truthfully, I didn't know why I was there.

"Well, why don't you come inside and we'll try to figure it out?"

**********

What's it gonna be 'cause I can't pretend

Don't you want to be more than friends

Hold me tight and don't let go

Don't let go

You have the right to lose control

Don't let go

**********

"We should talk about what almost happened at the hospital." I say.

"Well, I think it's pretty self explanatory." Nice time to be a smartass, Carter.

**********

I often tell myself that we could be more than just friends

I know you think that if we move too soon it would all end

I live in misery when you're not around

And I won't be satisfied till we're taking those vows

**********

"I wanted it to happen so much it hurt." I was being honest with him, and he seemed a little taken aback by it. He wasn't use to this part of me. The part that told him exactly how I felt.

**********

There'll be some love makin', heart breakin', soul shakin' love

Love makin', heart breakin', soul shakin'.....

**********

"Do you still want it to happen?" I nod.

**********

What's it gonna be 'cause I can't pretend

Don't you want to be more than friends

Hold me tight and don't let go

Don't let go

You have the right to lose control

Don't let go

**********

I can't remember how long we stood there in silence before he had his arms around me, and was finally kissing me.

**********

I often fantasize the stars above oh, a chill

They know my heart to speaks to yours like only lovers do

If I could wear your clothes I'd pretend I was you and lose control

**********

I don't recall walking up the long staircase of the mansion, and going into his bedroom. I didn't take in the surroundings, so I wasn't even sure it was his. The only thing I was concentrating on was us.

**********

There'll be some love makin', heart breakin', soul shakin' love

Love makin', heart breakin', soul shakin'.....

**********

This is one of those moments. The kind that you dream about for so long, and in your dreams they're perfect. It was intense and passionate. It was beautiful.

***********

What's it gonna be 'cuz I can't pretend

Don't you want to be more than friends

Hold me tight and don't let go

Don't let go

You have the right to lose control

Don't let go

***********

I collapsed in his arms, and for the first time in sixteen years, I was content.

***********

Runnin in and outta my life

Has got me so confused

You gotta make the sacrifice

Somebody's gotta choose

We can make it if we try

For the sake of you and I

Together we can make it right

***********

"Abby.." He spoke softly. "I love you, I always have."

"I love you too."

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..and that's the end of this chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it! Like always, if you want more, leave me some reviews please! Thanks : )