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"You okay?"

Abby looked over at Carter. "Fine."

Actually, she was far from it. Abby was terrified of flying over ground, and absolutely petrified of flying over water. When the flight attendant had announced minutes before to shut off all cell phones and electronic devices because the boarding door had been shut, she practically wanted to run to the cockpit and beg to be let off the plane. Once Carter had placed their duffel bags up in the overhead compartment and sat down next to her, Abby had started to feel a little less terrified.

Once they had gotten on the El earlier in the day, Carter had called the airline and reserved two tickets on a 6:20 flight to Paris. Abby begged him to let her pay him back for her ticket, but he wasn't hearing any of it. He had just dropped over two thousand dollars for two round trip tickets—to France alone. She had no idea what the cost would be to fly to the Congo, but Carter told her not to worry about it, that his bank account would take care of it. Sometimes it really irked Abby how much money John seemed to have and the way he could pay for virtually almost anything he wanted, but she had gotten used to it over the course of their relationship and found out that he rarely spent more than he had to on every day things. Of course, two thousand dollars for two last minute seats on an overseas flight wasn't an ordinary every day thing, but whatever.

Once Carter had gotten off the phone with the airline, he had called County and explained the situation to her, covering Abby a hundred percent along the way. Kerry seemed to buy the story and wished them luck, but most importantly, told them to also take care of themselves.

Abby was lucky she still had an old passport lying around in her drawer. She had gotten it years ago, when she had traveled to London with Richard before they had been divorced. It had been renewed a year beforehand, and quickly she tucked it into her bag before packing her duffel bag.

"You don't like to fly, do you?"

She shook her head quickly. "No."

He grinned at her. "It's an eight hour and ten minute flight."

"You're the doctor here. Give me something to knock me out so I don't have to see us takeoff." Abby rested her head against the back of the seat and stared out the small plane window.

"Do you get motion sickness?"

She shrugged. "Not really, but sometimes."

"I have Dramamine in my bag so let me know if you need it, okay?" Carter glanced at her, concerned. Abby was really starting to look a little pale. "You don't look so good." He gently grabbed her wrist.

Abby jerked her arm away with a smile. "Did you just try to take my pulse?"

He laughed. "You looked pale."

"I'm okay, John. It's a flight. I'll deal with it. It's not going to send me off to the morgue or anything."

"Okay good."

Abby closed her eyes just as the flight attendants started going through the takeoff procedures. Before she knew it, they were slowly taxiing out onto the main runway.

Carter looked down at Abby's hand. She was practically gripping the armrest so hard her knuckles were turning white. "I didn't know you were this bad of a flyer."

"We're taking off now, aren't we?"

He nodded. "That's usually what happens after we line up with the runway."

She smiled and looked out the window. "Don't be such a jerk."

"I'm not," Carter laughed at her. "Ready?"

"You're not supposed to warn me about it. Then I have time to panic. Thanks a lot." Abby tightly shut her eyes as they completely lined up with the runway.

Carter slowly reached his hand out and linked Abby's fingers with his own. He squeezed her hand gently and she opened her eyes as the plane headed down the runway at top speed. "We're halfway there."

"I know." The plane lifted up and off the ground as Abby tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I feel like a little kid, being talked through takeoff. Except I'm not excited, I'm scared," she laughed.

"Glad to know I'm good for something."

"John Truman Carter, plane therapist extraordinaire. Don't quit your day job."

May 22nd

"Abby." Carter rubbed her shoulder gently. "Abby, wake up. We landed."

Abby lifted her head sleepily off Carter's shoulder and pulled the thin blanket off of her body. "I slept through it?"

He nodded. "Yeah. We're in Kinshasa."

"That was quick."

"I think the Dramamine knocked you out pretty fast," he joked as he stood up and collected their duffel bags from the overhead compartment.

"I'm pretty groggy."

"You will be for awhile."

She slung her duffel bag over her shoulder and stumbled out into the aisle after him, almost losing her balance. He quickly grabbed her around the waist and steadied her.

"Careful," Carter warned her.

"Thanks," Abby mumbled, still half asleep. She felt terrible. They had landed in Paris the day before, and the only flight heading from Paris to Kinshasa was leaving at six AM the following morning—today. Carter had booked the tickets, managed to hail a cab, and gotten them a room at a decent hotel not far from the Eiffel Tower itself. For Abby's first time in Paris, it wasn't that bad. She found herself having a good time just joking around with Carter and enjoying the sights—like they had used to be able to do when they were still on friendly, semi good terms with each other. Their fight hadn't been brought up, and Abby knew that they were both avoiding the topic, but figured that for now it was just best to let things go for a little while. After they had checked in at the hotel, John had taken her out to eat at a small café, and then they returned to the hotel for the rest of the night. He had ordered in some romantic comedy on the hotel's pay per view station, and although Abby had tried to stay awake for most of it, she was incredibly jet lagged. She was asleep within twenty minutes of the movie starting, and so was Carter. They had ended up sharing a bed, but neither one seemed to mind and didn't force any of their relationship issues that night.

It wasn't until about an hour into takeoff when Abby started feeling really nauseous. Their plane had been going through heavy turbulence for about ten minutes, and with each bump or drop, Abby's stomach would flip flop. She managed to make it to the bathroom twice with Carter's help, but didn't feel any better until her gave her the Dramamine, which had helped her fall asleep for the rest of the flight.

Sighing, she slung her own duffel bag over her shoulder and followed Carter down the narrow aisle towards the stairs that would lead them onto the tarmac. Once Carter started descending the stairs, Abby felt a hot blast of air hit her. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt such intense heat. It was like a Chicago heat wave multiplied by three.

By now, they had reached the bottom of the stairs and were trudging across the tarmac. Abby lifted her hair off the back of her neck, which was already sticky with sweat. Now she was groggy, nauseous, and sweaty. A lovely combination when you're an ocean and several thousand miles away from home.

Carter glanced over at her through his aviator shades and smiled slightly. "You okay? You'll get used to the heat."

Abby shook her head and pulled a cigarette out of her pack, lighting it quickly. She inhaled deeply and blew out the smoke. She did really need to quit, but it was a comfort thing to her, and she needed that comfort right now. "We'll see about that. Where do we have to go from here?"

"Through customs and then I'm supposed to be meeting Gillian and Charles in the main concourse."

She didn't bother with a response, but was thankful once they reached the cooler concourse. She crushed out her cigarette and tossed the butt in a garbage can, resting her other hand against her now pounding head. She was starting to feel worse, so once they had gotten through customs, she gripped John's arm in attempt to get him to stop walking.

"You okay?" He gripped her shoulders lightly and watched her shake her head.

"Not really. Can we sit down for a few minutes?"

He nodded and helped her over to a nearby area with chairs. She rested her head against the wall as he took her pulse quickly. "Any dizziness or nausea?"

Abby shook her head yes. "Yeah. It's not so bad right now."

Carter pulled out his half empty bottle of water and handed it to her, untwisting the cap. "Drink some of this and take a few deep breaths."

She sipped the water, handing the bottle back to him to pull her hair back up into a messy twist. "I'll be fine. It's not a big deal."

"I don't want you passing out from dehydration."

"I won't."

"Okay, I'm just saying—"

"John!" Abby shouted at him. "I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me anymore."

Anymore. The word struck Carter as something so final that he was almost having a hard time understanding it. Did she mean that just because their relationship was faltering on the edge of breaking up that Abby assumed that he would stop caring about her?

"What's that supposed to mean? Are you calling it?"

"Sure," Abby muttered sarcastically. "Time of death, four PM Kisangani time."

"Can we do this later?" Carter replied angrily. "Obviously I didn't know that I couldn't care about you anymore."

"Should have thought of that when you took off for the Congo the first time instead of running away."

He looked away and shook his head. "It's what you do best, isn't it? I guess I learned a few things from you when we were together."

"Glad to say I didn't pick up any of your conceited, wonderful habits."

"You know, it would have been a year for us the day we left? I was thinking about that on the plane," Carter added quietly. "Our relationship would have lasted a year."

Abby said nothing to this, but looked down at her feet instead.

"John!"

Gillian and Charles quickly approached Carter and Abby. Carter stood up quickly and shook Charles' hand with a sad expression. Gillian hugged him tightly, softly crying into his shoulder. Uncomfortably, Abby looked on, trying to not draw any attention to herself. Maybe it was a bad idea for her to have followed John all the way here. Not only were they bringing themselves into a heavy situation with Luka's probable death, but also most likely they would fight the entire time. Abby certainly didn't speak the language and didn't know anyone else in the Congo besides John and Luka. She didn't know what to do.

"Charles, Gillian, this is my—" Carter stopped himself. He had almost referred to Abby as 'my girlfriend', but since he didn't know where they were, he wasn't about to irritate the subject. "This is Abby Lockkart. She's the ER charge nurse at County General."

Gillian politely shook Abby's hand. "Nice to meet you. You work with John then? And Luka?"

"Yes."

Charles quickly muttered a hello and shook Abby's hand as well. He then turned back to Carter, and the two began a deep discussion. Abby caught a few catch phrases about the situation and what happened to Luka's body. Whether or not the Red Cross located it, and the possibility of his body being kept in Kivu with others. She turned her head, wanting to block the conversation out, only to find tears streaming down Gillian's face silently as they headed out of the concourse and to an awaiting white jeep. Abby didn't say anything as she, Gillian, and Carter slid into the backseat, while Charles sat down in the passenger seat. Quickly the jeep pulled away, and Gillian and Abby both lit up cigarettes.

"We set aside a tent for you, John. We have an extra sleeping bag for Abby and a pillow." Charles motioned towards the medium sized green tent that was adjacent to other doctors and nurses throughout the area outside of the hospital. "I'm sorry we couldn't find out more information. I will try to find out more first thing in the morning and then we will go from there."

"I appreciate that," Carter replied. "We'll talk first thing."

"Of course. Well good night, then. Nice to meet you, Abby. We're glad to have your help around here."

"Thanks," Abby replied shortly. Carter lifted the flap of the tent for her and she hunched over to crawl inside. She had been jerked around from place to place all day, hoping desperately to find some information about Luka. They had located some personal belongings of his and his Alliance identification card, but other than that, they hadn't made much progress and would now have to wait until morning. She hoped to go that Luka was still alive, and also knew that nothing was certain until she saw his body for herself. She just had to be optimistic.

She quickly stripped off her jeans and tee shirt, replacing them with a pair of cotton sleep shorts and a tank top. Abby discarded her bra to the side of her bag and made sure her hair was pulled back. Looking over, she saw that Carter was changing as well. She was surprised to see him unzip the sleeping bag and spread it across the ground as a large blanket. He then tossed the two pillows on top and spread out the thin sheet on top. It was too hot to have anything else cover them.

"Do you feel any better?"

She looked up at him and nodded. "I'm just tired now."

"So am I."

Abby laid down on the sleeping bag and pulled the sheet over her body loosely. Turning onto her side, she watched as Carter did the same. "Well…good night then." She turned her back to him and quickly settled into a comfortable position.

"We can't go on and not talk about this. I need to know what you want. Do you want to stay together and work this thing out? Do you want to take a break? Do you want to see other people? Help me out here, Abby."

Abby turned onto her back and rested her hand on her head. "I don't know. We need to communicate better."

"I want to be in this for the long run, but we can't keep fighting. I want you to be able to talk to me about anything—about your family, Eric, everything. What do you want?"

"I want to be in this for the long run. We let it fall apart months ago," she replied quietly. "And I don't even know what I'm doing here. I came here for you, and all I want to do is figure out where we are. And if that means going back with a new start then okay. If not, then that's fine too. Can we talk about this tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Goodnight."

"Night," she yawned.

He sighed and turned onto his side as well. "Nothing's changed, Abby. I still feel the same way I did before I left the first time."

"Okay." Abby gritted her teeth. Did Carter really mean what he was saying? She just didn't want to deal with this right now--but at the same time she wanted to. Needed to deal with this again.

"We have to work some things out."

"Yeah. We do."

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