The next day, Abby awoke to an empty tent and a growling stomach. She didn't know what time it was or where Carter had run off to. She didn't even know where to find out more information about Luka. There was no way she could even communicate—she didn't know French or any other language that would be of use.
Before Abby could panic for too long, the flap of the tent opened and Carter crawled in with a cup in his hand.
"Morning," he greeted her. "Get dressed. Charles found a lead on Luka's whereabouts, so we have to head back to Kisangani to meet up with someone at the Alliance."
Abby cradled her head in her hands for a moment before throwing back the sheet and standing up. "What time is it?"
"A little after eight."
She bent over and started searching around for her clothes from the night before. "John, where the hell is my bra? Everything was—"
Carter dug around in their duffel bag and pulled it out, throwing it to her. "Sorry. I packed everything up. Never leave your personal effects lying around. Rule of thumb."
Quickly, Abby dressed and managed to pull her hair back in all of two minutes. "When do we leave?"
"We're just waiting on you. Charles and Gillian are waiting at the front of the hospital."
She slipped on her shoes and gave Carter a look. "You know, you could have woken me up sooner."
"And deal with that side of your personality? I think not," he chuckled with a grin. "You and I both know that you're not a morning person."
"Laugh it up some more," Abby grumbled. Carter gathered their belongings and slung the duffel bag over his shoulder while Abby did the same with hers. Finally, he handed her the cup he had been holding since she had woken up.
"Coffee for you. It's not the best, but it'll get you through the day."
"Thanks."
He lifted the tent flap for her. "Coming, sleeping beauty?"
"Shut up, John."
An hour later, Abby found herself waiting patiently on a bench next to Gillian. She leaned her head back against the wall and watched as Carter paced back and forth down the linoleum hall of the Alliance building. Charles had sent them ahead without him, as last minute he needed to take care of something at the hospital.
"How much longer?"
Gillian sighed and shook her head. "It's the Congo. Could be days," she replied. "Damn, I wish I had brought my cigarettes." Instead, she slumped against the wall and closed her eyes briefly.
Abby stared at the floor, but looked up when John rested a hand on her shoulder. "I hope they know something."
He nodded. "I know. Me too." Carter glanced over at Gillian and cleared his throat. "How are you feeling, Gillian?"
"Terrible." It was a one word answer, but it pretty much summed up how they were all feeling about the situation involving Luka.
Just then, a man quickly approached them. Gillian stood up with a smile and embraced him quickly as the man kissed both of her cheeks.
"John, Abby, this is Andre. He works with the Alliance."
Carter shook his hand while Abby simply nodded. "Nice to meet you."
"I believe you've all been waiting on me, so let's go and I'll tell you what I've managed to find out." Andre motioned for them to follow and led them into a medium size office at the end of the same hall. Inside there were two chairs in front of a desk. Abby and Gillian took the seats, while Carter stood off to the side of the desk.
Andre took a seat behind his desk and crossed his hands. "I don't have much to tell you, but what I can tell you is this. Nobody knows much more then that we, the Alliance, have made a deal with the Mai Mai to evacuate the living wounded noncombatants."
"Meaning what exactly?" Gillian spoke softly.
"Meaning that we have received a list of the known and presumed dead, along with their personal effects." Andre opened his bottom desk drawer and took out a pile of plastic baggies and placed them in the center of his desk. He started sorting through them, and paused quickly. He picked up the selected bag and handed it to Carter, who only stared at it. Gillian gasped and covered her mouth, tears springing to her eyes. Abby didn't know how to respond, so instead she closed her eyes and gripped Gillian's hand.
The bag contained Luka's Alliance identification card, tinged with dried blood. "I want his body back," Carter spoke suddenly.
"It is not that simple. You have to wait until the fighting stops."
Carter winced as he heard Gillian start to cry softly. He rested a hand on her back and quickly glanced at Abby, who would not meet his eyes. "How long? Days, weeks, months?"
"I don't know. It's not certain. There is a team in Kisangani that has been in negotiations with the Mai Mai."
"Debbie?" Gillian whispered hoarsely.
"Yes," Andre nodded. "You can also try Bob Chase at the American Embassy."
That was enough for Carter to hear. He shook Andre's hand. "Thank you for your help."
They hadn't gone far—just out onto a balcony that overlooked the courtyard of the Alliance building. All three were leaning up against the rail casually, trying to make sense of the situation and what to do next.
"Who is Debbie?" Carter asked suddenly, glancing over at Gillian.
"She's with the Red Cross field office in Kisangani. You'd like her. She's your type."
Abby looked away uncomfortably, taking advantage of the situation by pulling her hair out of the hair tie and redoing it quickly. Carter noticed this and tried to get Abby to meet his eyes, but she wouldn't. Apparently things were still very tense between them, and he was running out of ways to get them back on track with each other.
"I shouldn't have left him out there," Carter voiced, ignoring what Gillian had just said completely.
"He didn't want us to stay."
"Should've stayed anyway."
"Maybe you should have," Abby said softly with a shrug. Carter stared at her and wondered when the hell all this resentment towards him would end. Every time he had tried to explain, nothing worked, and they went on acting like anything but friends. It needed to stop, and Carter thought back briefly to the night before about what he had said regarding their relationship. He had told Abby that nothing had changed, but in reality, it had. He just didn't want to admit it to himself. Whether or not he would be able to fix the change or make something out of it was another story.
"If you stayed, then you'd be dead too."
The American Embassy hadn't given Carter much of lead to follow in an attempt to get Luka's body back. Abby felt like they were running in circles, and instead of finding someone that could point them in the right direction, Bob Chase had told them all that he recommended using money to buy Luka's body back from the Mai Mai. It angered her that they would have to end up paying the enemy who killed Luka in the first place in order to get anywhere in the damn country. Nobody knew anything, and towards late afternoon, hope was running dry and tempers were flaring up between all three of them.
So without a word, Abby and Gillian had reluctantly followed Carter to withdraw twenty thousand dollars at the bank in the Embassy. Abby stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest as she watched the teller counting out the bills. Gillian seemed completely flustered at this, but Abby had been more accustomed to Carter's ways then she obviously had.
When the teller was done, Carter stuffed the envelope of money into his pants pocket, motioning to Abby and Gillian that they were ready to go now.
"You shouldn't carry that much money around here," Gillian warned him. "It's not wise."
"Oh, he knows," Abby shot back sarcastically. "But he'll do it anyway."
Carter glared at her and bit back the urge to say something in response. "Okay, Abby. I don't think the Mai Mai accept traveler's checks."
"I didn't know you could put that much money on a credit card," Gillian smiled. "C'est la vie."
It was heading towards dusk when Abby and Carter returned to their tent on the outskirts of the hospital. With Gillian's help, they had located Debbie at the Red Cross outpost. At first, she wasn't too keen on the idea of paying the Mai Mai to locate Luka's body, but she had found an alternate way to go about things. Debbie explained that right now she was negotiating to get into Kivu to rescue more of the wounded, and that they needed good doctors and nurses available to help. She explained that if Carter, Abby, and Gillian came along with her in the morning, there was a good chance they'd be able to find something else out about Luka and his whereabouts.
Abby sat down in the middle of the makeshift sleeping bag bed and continued eating the beef stew and leftover coffee for dinner while Carter quickly changed. "Do you want some of this? I can't finish all of it."
"In a minute." His tone was cold as he tossed his sweat soaked shirt to the side. Quickly, he pulled on another and kneeled down next to her. "Can I ask you what your problem is, though?"
She stared up at him and sighed, handing him the food before lying back down on the bed. "Nothing."
"Nothing sounded like something today when you had an attitude about everything and everywhere we had to go. Christ, Abby, you sound really self-centered, you know that? Luka could be dead, and you're worried about yourself."
She ignored him and turned onto her side, her back facing him. "I'm not."
"Whatever you say, Abby."
"God, can you stop!" she shouted out. "I'm so tired of your attitude, John."
"Then why did you even bother to come with me?"
"Because I wanted to work things out, and I cared about what happened to Luka! The last time we had relationship problems you ran away to find yourself!" Abby sat up stubbornly. "I want to work things out as much as you do, but by us sitting here ignoring each other and arguing, we're not getting anywhere. We could do this in Chicago."
"Abby…" Carter groaned. "Clue me in here. What are we doing? This silent treatment really isn't giving me much to go on anymore."
"I want to be with you. But you really hurt me when you left like you did, and I know I'm not a saint and we had problems. I had problems. You didn't want to deal with them anymore, and I didn't want to deal with what was going on between us. Maybe the time away helped us out when you went away the first time."
"I didn't run away from you," Carter spoke softly. "Not intentionally."
"But you still ran."
He sighed and set the empty bowl and coffee cup aside. "I know. I don't know how many times you want me to apologize for that, Abby. I'm sorry. I should have stayed. I was a real jerk and I don't blame you for not wanting to be with me anymore. Can we get past this, though?"
She thought about it for a moment and then nodded. "We can. It's just a matter of how. I don't want to completely start over again."
"Neither do I." She grabbed the coffee cup and drank some of it before continuing. "I called you worse things than a jerk when you were away. Just ask Susan."
"I will, first thing when we get back," he laughed.
"Okay."
Carter looked into Abby's eyes and suddenly leaned forward, cupping her face in his hands. He kissed her softly at first, waiting for her to pull away and protest. But she never did, and instead, Abby reciprocated the kiss and pulled herself onto Carter's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. They continued in that position for a few minutes, until Abby finally pulled away. She leaned back a little bit and looked away.
"I meant that," Carter explained quickly."
"I know. So did I."
"I guess it's safe to say that the spark is still there."
Abby rested her hand next to his and Carter linked their fingers together. "Did you know that everyone at County had a running bet on how long we would stay together? They thought that we were too different and too opinionated, that you—"
"Were a cocky bastard?"
She laughed and nodded. "And I was a nervous breakdown waiting to happen."
"We're not perfect, but we've made it this far," he noted. "And that's about all I can offer you."
"If you can accept my crazy family, I guess I could get used to living in a mansion."
Carter grinned and shrugged. "Hey, like I said before, I'd fit right in."
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