HappyAbby, Dracula5555, squiggle7, sam, britgirl2003, starbright and carbytothecore
Thank you all very much for plenty of great reviews there
Carbytothecore – you asked after Ollie and Richard, right?
They feature in this Chapter
Along with a whole load of good ol' carby fun
Enjoy! Love LJ xXx
Beyond All Of Everything. Chapter Six. The Window Seat
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o SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 5: Abby hurts her wrist and explains to Carter it was because she was drunk.
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"We need one more person to go up to the roof – there's a MVA victim coming in by chopper," Lewis calls out as she wheels a gurney towards the lifts. Carter looks around him.
"I'll come," he offers when nobody else does. He finishes treating a patient and pulls off his gloves, chucking them into a nearby bin as he jogs after her.
"Hurry up!" Jing-Mei is holding the lift door for him and as he slips inside he's greeted by two suspicious grins.
"So – " Susan begins, the smiles on their faces widening. "Jing-Mei and I have got a theory…"
"About what?" Carter asks, with raised eyebrows, though he already knows.
"About you and Abby," Chen begins. Carter covers his ears with both hands.
"This isn't fair," he cries, standing in between the two women. "Two against one!"
"So we were thinking that you and her…" Susan shouts so he can hear her.
"I can't hear you!" he yells back, humming and singing loudly with his hands clamped over his ears. Jing-Mei watches him for a while.
"God, sometimes men can be so immature," she tells Susan. Susan nods in agreement and Chen struggles to keep a straight face as Susan pulls faces at the back of Carter's head.
After the MVA trauma, Carter slipped away quickly to escape Jing-Mei and Susan; he stole away into the Doctor's Lounge and peered out through the blinds in case they came after him.
"Aren't you a little old to be playing hide and seek?" a friendly voice comes from behind him. Abby is at her locker and pulling on her coat. He turns with a smile.
"When it's hiding from Susan and Deb, it's not a game." He replies. Abby grins.
"I know the feeling, hiding from Romano," she answers. "Will you cover for me? I have to go and pick up Ollie from school." Carter shrugs.
"Sure," he nods. "But only if you'll go to dinner with me tonight."
"John – I don't know…" Abby hesitates. "I've got to look after Ollie."
"Well he can come too," Carter reasons. "And anyway, I could always get a lot angrier about the whole incident earlier." Abby picks at the bandage around her right wrist and raises her eyebrows.
"Isn't that classed as blackmail?"
"Yes, yes it is." Carter says calmly. Abby rolls her eyes, smiling all the same.
"Okay, okay," she relents. "I'll be back with Ollie in about twenty minutes."
She walks out of the lounge and Carter watches after her. As she turns the corner and disappears, Susan cruises down the hall, suspiciously looking for somebody. Carter throws himself down onto the Doctor's Lounge sofa. He lies there, staring up at the ceiling with a smile on his face; he can only imagine their 6th grade glee if they found out that he was taking Abby out to dinner tonight.
John Carter grabs his coat and heads out of County to see what's taken Abby so long – she hasn't been back the Lounge for nearly an hour. He gets his answer as he steps outside – there's Abby and Ollie playing basketball in the bay.
"Go ahead," Abby encourages Ollie, who's bouncing the ball. "Take a shot, honey." The hoop is too high and Ollie can't help but feel a little daunted. He jumps – he won't make it, he hasn't scored any. But for some reason this jump is taking him higher and higher; the hoop is suddenly so close that he just puts the ball through.
"I did it!" he yells, delighted. Carter sets the boy back down on the ground.
"Did you see it, Mom?" Ollie whoops. Carter grins at Abby who picks up Ollie and swings him around to perch on her hip again.
"Yeah I saw it – it was great," Abby enthuses. "Nice going, kid."
It's as if nothing needs to be said; Carter finds himself guiding Abby along the streets towards the restaurant with his arm around her as Ollie chats to both of them. The simple synchronisation of them together is so perfectly in time that it all flows – conversation, movement. They come to a halt outside an immaculate, upmarket restaurant and Carter ushers Ollie and Abby inside.
"Your table, Dr Carter." The waiter swoops upon them and swiftly guides them to Carter's reserved table. Abby grips Ollie's hand tighter although there's no chance of him getting lost – he is in fact quite enjoying the rich and classy atmosphere; she is holding onto him more for herself.
"You should've told me where we were going," she hisses to Carter as he sits opposite her.
"Then it wouldn't have been a surprise," he replies with a smile. She raises her eyebrows and flicks at her hair so it swings down, hiding herself.
"I feel underdressed," she admits, using a soft laugh to make it wash past like a casual comment.
"I think you look great," Carter assures her.
"Well you would say that, wouldn't you?" Abby speaks into her menu as she hides the rush of red to her cheeks that she couldn't stop from coming.
"Hide!"
It is halfway through the meal when Carter suddenly yells out. He has his menu propped up and is ducked behind it, his chin on the table top.
"Huh?" Abby is looking at him as though he is completely insane.
"Get down!" he holds up her menu against at the window. Abby obediently takes cover behind it.
"Would you like to tell me what's going on?" she asks.
"It's Susan and Deb. I shouldn't have booked the window seat." He whispers. She peers through the gap between the two menus and sees the two of them strolling down the street. Carter quickly pushes the two menus together and flattens himself down onto the table.
"Ohh…" Abby realises and then begins to laugh.
"What?" he asks but is soon chuckling at the ridiculousness of it all.
"Ollie?" Abby murmurs after a while. "Can you take a look and tell me if you can see two women – one with blonde and one with black hair – outside?" Ollie kneels up on the seat and presses his face against the window.
"Nope," he chirps then looks around at the two adults hiding behind their menus. "Can I play?"
Abby is walking up the stairs. It's back to her own place now. She didn't want to leave, she didn't want it to end, but Ollie is flopped over her shoulder asleep and it's late. Keys click in the lock, day in, day out – she will always come back to this place. She hates it.
Ollie's head dangles downwards – too tired to hold it up as he is set down onto his bed. It is ten minutes to midnight and he usually sleeps at seven-thirty. Abby works quietly and gently to change him out of his day clothes but he wakes as she pulls his pyjama top over his head.
"Shh – it's okay," she soothes and kisses his forehead as he starts to whimper; it is far too late for him. He moans sleepily before sliding underneath the covers and going back to sleep.
"Had fun?" There's a voice at his bedroom door that makes her freeze. Abby leaves Ollie's room, shutting the door so he won't have to hear whatever comes next.
"I thought you were out of town." She murmurs.
"Well, y'know, I was walking to the EL," Richard begins, "when I saw this happy family sitting in a restaurant. But then I thought – wait a minute, that's my son with some strange man. And that's my lying, cheating, whore of a wife in there."
By now he is shouting; Abby can't believe it could go so wrong – how come every single sacred happy thing in her life has to be tainted? Carter was right – he shouldn't have booked the window seat.