The Last Train Home

AN: Sorry if Carter seems patronising; he wasn't supposed to. Sorry if it's shite; I wrote it. Sorry if it seems that I am addicted semicolons; I am.

And yes, I know the fic is unrealistic, but so was the helicopter falling on Romano's head in Freefall.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters in this fic.

PART 1 - Susan's project

The member list as it stood looked like this:

Susan

Neela

Sam

Luka

Randi

Frank

Jerry

Chuny

Haleh

Elizabeth

Having added Elizabeth's name to the list with a flourish, Susan sighed. They were going to have to change their strategy. It had all been going so well until about a month ago. Then something had changed. She was sure of it.

She and Neela had set up 'The Carter and Abby Reunion Club', or CAR Club, for short, a few months back. It had started off as something to occupy herself with while she was stuck on bed-rest; now it was a whole lot more that. So far they had ten members, the most fervent of whom were she, Luka and Neela. She was pretty sure Frank and Jerry were just in it for the free food (in fact Jerry was in it for the free food; Frank was in it to reluctantly give his free food to Jerry, sneaking tiny morsels to his own mouth when he thought no-one was watching).

Until now, the CAR club had been working together very subtly, and Carter and Abby hadn't noticed that they had been put together on more cases than usual, or if they had they hadn't said anything. Their code names were Peaches and Herb, and Susan had exercised her jurisdiction to ban the use of their real names together in public, just to be on the safe side. Besides, it was more fun that way.

Frank and Jerry had been instrumental in her plan to coerce the caretakers into stopping the elevator half way up the shaft with Carter and Abby in it, on which she had effectively wasted about ten donuts and one lunch-break of outrageous flirting with a caretaker in her plump postnatal state. Unfortunately this plan had been discarded on account of Neela and some others saying that it was too drastic a measure. It was possible that it might arouse suspicion, and she was not sure that Kerry would have approved. She was pretty sure that Kerry knew about CAR, but had turned a blind eye. No doubt elevators would set her muttering about health and safety and insurance policies.

They had settled on a party instead. Officially, it was Susan's housewarming-cum-Valentines party. Unofficially, it was the CAR party. She'd even made a sign with 'CAR' written on it. The beauty of it was that Carter and Abby would see it and be none the wiser. She could always tell them afterwards, if it worked out. She might be in trouble with Abby, though. She only hoped that Abby and Carter would be able to work through the argument she was almost certain they'd had a month ago.

Constructive abuse very welcome!