Misfortune
A/N: Sorry for the massive delay in updates… I'll try to be better now!
~*~
Abby ran her fingers over the small crease in the picture. The white indent on the paper broke his otherwise unblemished face. She stared at it, taking in his every feature. His deep brown eyes that could contain no emotion in secrecy, his tiny spray of freckles that were impossible to see outside of very intimate situations, his perfect ears and his annoyingly pointed nose that, however comical it would seem on any other face, suited his perfectly.
He looked so innocent, so young, so happy.
She sighed as she put the picture back into her pocket where it had been for months now, its edges creasing and her own fingerprints distorting its glossy furbish.
Carter.
The picture had been taken before Kem. He was standing by the river and Abby had claimed that she 'just had to finish her film', snapping the picture of him as the sun set on the water. It had developed beautifully, the red tones of the sun on the slightly rippling waters framing his brown locks and contouring his delicate features.
She loved that picture. She had gotten a double. And he had probably forgotten all about it. It had seemed so insignificant at the time but was now so precious.
She walked into the hospital bay with the picture imprinted in her memory. She could feel the brisk air of the evening, though it was quite mild outside. She could hear his deep chuckles as she told him of her comical patient. She could see his smile and the stars that seemed to dance across his eyes when he took delight in anything.
She could see him as he was.
As he had been.
And she was saddened when she thought of how he had changed.
~*~
"Abby, we need you in trauma green!"
She dropped the chart she had been just about to pick up and followed Susan to the trauma room where a teenage stab wound patient lay bleeding and unresponsive. This day was already starting to depress her and she had only just begun.
Nearly an hour later, after the young girl had been declared dead, Abby decided she needed a break.
Coffee seemed so tempting just then and she told Frank to give her fifteen minutes, when he grunted back his inarticulate response, Abby pulled off the trauma gloves and went to grab her coat from the lounge on her way to 'Ike's'.
She ran into him just as she was walking across the ambulance bay.
She was pulling her gloves out of her pockets, when something else fell from her pocket and blew about three feet to her right. She was just turning to grab it when he approached her. He had it in his hand.
He had seen it.
She felt herself blushing. He face was getting hot despite the small chill in the autumn air. She put out her hand to take back the picture, but he was staring down at it, seemingly captivated and obviously uninterested in returning it just then.
She was screaming at him inside her head, desperate to just get the picture back so she could run far away in shame, but he stood there and in doing so, forced her to stand there expectantly.
"I remember this," he said softly after a moment or two that felt like a decade.
"Yeah," she answered, her shame forcing her to bit her tongue, "nice picture." He nodded in agreement and looked at her.
"I didn't know it would come out this good. I remember wanting to ask you about it, but always forgetting until I was alone at night, or running around in the Congo. That was a nice night."
Abby sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, it was."
"Well, here," he handed her the picture, but as she took it from his hand, he tightened his grasp on it for just a second before letting her have it.
"You know what? I have another copy. You can have this," she said graciously. He looked at her carefully and she could feel herself blush deeper.
She felt as though he was seeing through his skin and right into her soul, his gaze was so intense.
"Thank you," he whispered finally and she nodded.