The Rainbow After The Storm

Chapter Eleven

Two months later

The room was dark; the figure lay in a foetal type position on the floor with it's hands protecting it's head. It was still, quiet in the early hours of the morning.

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'Is it me or is it getting cold out there?' Jing-Mei said as she came into the ER.

'It's what we call early onset of winter' explained Frank in his usual manner.

'Don't get too excited it's not much warmer in here' said Sam joining the conversation.

'It's quiet, where's everyone?' Jing-Mei asked

'Carter's late, don't ask me where he is,' said Frank 'Abby's due in in the next couple of hours or so, Pratt's in triage, Morris is in one and Luka's somewhere'

'Suture' supplied Sam

'There you go,' said Frank 'Down on nurses too, they all seem to have picked up this cold virus going around'

'Nice' said Jing-Mei and as she turned Carter hurried in looking rather harassed.

'You're late' called out Frank 'Good job Dr Wright isn't here today'

'Flight was delayed' Carter shouted back heading into the lounge.

'Where did he go?' asked Frank

Jing-Mei shook her head.

Sam said 'Don't look at me?'

'If anyone knows it'll be Abby' said Jing-Mei

'She's not here' said Frank

'So you said' said Jing-Mei then added 'We could actually ask Carter himself'

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The alarm clock rang through the apartment, the figure on the floor moved slightly, gingerly as if testing out it's limbs. Slowly the figure got up and forced it's self into a standing position of sorts and moved to turn off the noise.

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'You lot look happy' said Carter sarcastically coming up to the desk where Sam, Jing-Mei and Frank still stood gossiping.

'It's the weather' said Jing-Mei

'Or working here' said Sam

'What's in?' Carter asked flicking through the rack to see if there was anything interesting, finding nothing that particularly that took his fancy he selected a possible kidney stone in four.

'Been slow last couple of days' said Sam thinking that she hadn't seen him for a while.

'Really' said Carter

'You've been gone that long?' asked Jing-Mei

'Three days' Carter replied

'Where did you go?' she asked

'To see my father, sort out some personal family stuff that I had been putting off' he replied

'Everything okay?' she asked

'Yeah' he replied.

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It was still relatively slow when Abby walked in two hours later. She moved slowly and carefully into the lounge and wondered how the hell she was going to pull this shift off, appearing as if everything was normal.

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Abby walked into the lounge to get another coffee and found Morris who obviously was slacking as usual.

'Coffee?' she asked

'No thanks' he replied 'got to work' and he headed out

'That will be a first' Abby muttered to herself.

She took her coffee and pondered whether to sit at the table or on the sofa which looked really inviting. However she knew that if she chose the latter she would have difficulty getting up, so she looked at the chair and finally decided that that was also too much effort to get up from, so she went back to admit.

'Hey' said Carter greeting her outside the door to the lounge.

'Hi' she replied 'How's your Dad?'

'Good'

She raised her eyebrows at him, which was probably the only part of her anatomy, which didn't hurt.

'We talked, after I spoke to you and you convinced me to stay, then it was good' he confessed

She smiled at him.

'Trauma's coming in' yelled Sam

'Coming?' asked Carter to Abby

'No... I... er... just.... My patient' she turned round as fast as possible under the circumstances, which was in fact incredibly slowly and walked carefully off.

Carter looked at her puzzled, worried, something was wrong, very wrong, but he didn't have the time to ask her about it at that moment.

'Carter! Double MVA' yelled Pratt 'I need help'

Carter turned on his heel and went into trauma one with Pratt, Sam and the patient. Followed closely by Jing-Mei and another couple of nurses and another patient who entered trauma two.

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After the couple of trauma's from the MVA it slowed down again. Carter stood at admit sipping a coffee and staring intently at the computer screen when he caught Abby walk past out of the corner of his eye. His gaze shifted from the computer to Abby. At first he thought that maybe she was tired, but it seemed somehow more than that, something else he just could not put his finger on. He knew Eric was still at her apartment for he had spoken to him two days ago when he rang Abby from Boston.

She didn't have her usual motivation, maybe she was going down with that virus thing Frank kept on about, but he didn't really believe it was that either. He looked around him, it was quiet. He could see Luka in the lounge, Pratt and Sam were also at the admit desk and he could see Morris walking about doing nothing as usual, not there was much to do at present and he could hear Jing-Mei talk to a patient in curtain one.

He followed Abby up the corridor and into exam one, where she looked at a patient's chart. There was something about the way she moved it wasn't normal it looked almost robotic, forced.

'Abby' he said as she put the chart back and leant on the bottom of the patients bed as if she needed the support.

'Abby' he touched her shoulder and she flinched slightly

She looked up at him, he glanced around the room and gently steered her to an empty bed and gently sat her down on it, noticing that she winced.

'Talk' he said bluntly and to the point

He bit his lip as he looked at her waiting for a reply.

She looked up at him, she knew she should have stayed home today but she needed the money and couldn't really afford to take time off sick. She also knew that she could never fool Carter and that the truth would surely come out.

'I think I broke a couple of ribs' she finally told him.

'Broken? How?'

She looked at him, studying him, trying to gauge his reaction, if she came out with what actually occurred.

When she didn't reply he added 'Want me to take a look' it wasn't a question though more of a statement.

Still she said nothing.

'Abby, you're not fit to be here. I've watched you for the last couple of hours and...'

'Okay'

'What?'

'I said okay, look'

He proceeded to pull the curtain around the bed when Morris approached.

'Dr Carter?'

'Yes' Carter replied

'I thought that bed was free, I was going to put this patient in it' Morris stated indicating a woman beside him.

'Well it's not, find another, we're not busy'

'But Frank said'

'I don't care what Frank said this bed is taken'

'There's no name on the board'

'There will be' Carter snapped and walked back into the curtained area leaving Morris standing outside.

'Mrs Jordan, we'll just find you a bed this way' Morris said and he led his patient out.

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Carter was appalled 'This is more than a couple of broken ribs Abby' he said as he examined her. Noticing the bruising which seemed to be appearing all over her upper body. 'We better do a couple of tests to rule out anything. How did this happen?'

She looked at him then away, everything hurt, ached; she promised herself that she would not cry in front of him.

'Tell me Abby' he pleaded

Looking down she said 'I told him to leave, get out, that I didn't want to see him again'

'Him? Who?' Carter replied trying to take everything in.

'Carter?' Jing-Mei called entering the room.

'We haven't finished discussing this' Carter told Abby as he went to find out what Jing-Mei wanted.

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She sat there in the bed; the curtain still pulled round her. The tears, which threatened to fall, brimmed on her eyes, but she fought them back. She wasn't going to let them fall. This was nothing, she was okay she kept telling herself. She wasn't hurt too bad really, although everything ached as though she had gone a couple of rounds in a boxing ring. And why did the thought of going home to her apartment scare her so, there was nothing to be afraid of, he would be gone by now, she could change the locks and then she would feel safe again.

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'Carter' Sam said approaching him at admit.

'Yeah' he answered

'Abby's results are back in' she spoke quietly so that everyone else didn't hear. 'Here' and she thrust them into his hand as he discreetly went to look at them.

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When he popped his head round the curtain, she appeared to be sleeping, in a strange upright sort of way. He gently lowered himself onto the edge of the bed.

'Abby' he said softly

She opened her eyes immediately and he knew that she hadn't been sleeping at all.

'I've got your results back' he said quietly

'And?' she asked

'Well you're right about one thing, you've a couple of broken ribs'

'Thought so, felt a bit like last time'

'Last time?'

'Yeah, you remember when there was an explosion down here, Maggie was visiting, it was Thanksgiving'

'Oh yeah, yeah I remember' he replied.

'What?' she asked 'There's something else?'

'There's the obvious bruising and abrasions that are visible and then your right kidney appears to have experienced some trauma too, don't worry nothing too serious no internal bleeding otherwise we would have picked you off the floor earlier, it just seems bruised'

'Oh great, I just thought it was visible bruising'

'Are you going to tell me what happened?' he asked almost inaudibly

'It's a bit blurry really' she said

'Come on Abby, it's not that blurry is it? You didn't lose consciousness did you?' he asked suddenly worried that she'd hit her head.

'No I er I don't think so. No'

'Then tell me, what happened'

She shrugged 'It was my fault, I should have never let him back after last week'

'What? Who?' Carter asked, inwardly knowing the answer but somehow by asking, he hoped that he was wrong.

'Eric' she tried hard to keep her voice under control, she willed herself not to cry in front of him.

His expression was terse and concerned, but not surprised.

Suddenly they were interrupted by Caroline the nurse 'GSW three minutes' she told him

'Find Luka, I'm busy' he replied

'Dr Carter...'

'No, not now, what's Luka doing anyway'

'He's on a break.'

'Jing-Mei can have the GSW or find Luka'

She sighed at him and turned around to find another doctor.

'You should go' Abby told him 'I'm not going anywhere'

Carter sighed deeply. 'Promise me, you'll stay right there?'

She nodded and he left, thankful for some more time to collect herself as she bit back the tears once more.

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He seemed to appear suddenly and at first she thought she was dreaming.

'John' she said as he sat down again.

He was looking rather tired and she guessed they lost the patient.

He ran a hand over his face and said 'Tell me Abby, what happened'

'You're not busy?'

'No. Talk. This time I've made sure we won't get interrupted'

There was a few minutes silence before she spoke.

'He was drunk as usual, he didn't know what he was doing' she said starting to defend her brother.

Carter bit his lip and raised his eyebrows at her, willing her to continue and wondering if she would never stop protecting him.

'We fought, argued. I told him last time that if he bought drink into the apartment he was out. But he didn't listen, told me that I was just like Mom, always nagging, that I didn't know what was best for him. That he knew what was best for him and no one else. That no one else would ever know what he was going through, what he was having to live through' she stopped suddenly as she realised her face was wet and wiped it with the back of her hand.

Carter sat there he didn't try to comfort her, he sat and watched her intently, urging her to carry by just looking at her.

'He told me I didn't understand that I couldn't possibly understand and that I would never understand. He said he was an adult and could do what he liked when he liked and if I didn't like it then tough. He told me to stop interfering, nagging, cajoling him to try and sort his life out. He said he was fed up with me, that he never wanted me, to look after him, take care of him, even when we were kids. He hadn't wanted me; he'd wanted a real Mom, not the one we had and not me an unsuitable replacement. I did my best you know, when I was a kid'

This time he stopped her by laying his hand on her forearm, she looked down finding his hand extremely interesting as his fingers softly massaged the skin there.

He didn't know if he could talk, ask questions, he felt too emotional. Why did stuff like this always happen when he went away, he silently asked himself? Fortunately for him she continued.

'Then he got real angry and started yelling, I can't remember everything he said, because he started to wave the baseball bat about and I knew that this time he would aim straight and he did. I can't recall how many times he hit me; I just curled up as best as I could, to protect my head. Then the phone rang, it stopped him, and he answered it and was gone. I couldn't move, I was scared, everything hurt and after a while I guess I must have fallen asleep for the next thing I knew my alarm was going off in the bedroom. Don't ask me to press charges I don't think I can, he's still my brother, and I .... but.. I...'

He looked at her reassuringly when Sam entered.

'Sorry' she started 'I know you said you didn't want any interruptions but' she looked at Carter then Abby, wondering what the hell was going on and knowing that whatever it was it wasn't good.

'What?' Carter asked

'There's a guy out at admit, wants to see Abby, says he's your brother'

Carter looked at Abby's tear stricken face. Abby bit her nails and fixed her gaze directly at Carter.

'I... I....can't' she stuttered

Sam looked from Carter to Abby then back to Carter again.

'What am I going to tell him?' Sam asked them waiting for an answer.

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