Here we go Ch 19… It's predictable, given some of the reviews I've gotten, which are all awesome by the way, keep them coming, good and bad all are great, although they've all been very nice so far…I maybe need some critical ones tho!
This chapter has been sitting written for ages on my computer, it's been really hard to write so I think that it might be fairly hard to read as a result but there is more far more interesting stuff to come so stick with it.
As ever I own nothing!
**************
"Hi..." Abby said walking into the suture room. "Imogen." She added glancing down at the chart ascertaining her patient's name.
"Hi." A man sitting on a chair by a little girl replied, embarrassed clattering a number of metal supplies back onto a table.
"Hi." Abby smiled looking at the man recognizing him, frowning slightly trying to place him, she knew she'd met him somewhere before.
"Nick Johnson, we met at Jasper and Amelia's house, Abby right?" He said, holding out his hand, "Sorry." He added realizing he still had a clamp in his other hand.
"Right yeah, hi." Abby smiled at him, turning her attention to the dark haired little girl sitting on the gurney, she was grinning broadly at her father who'd obviously been entertaining her. "Hi Imogen," She smiled down at the little girl she remembered from her evening with Amelia. "You cut your arm, you mind if I take a look?" She added kindly, sitting down, as the little girl stared back at her, doing her best to smile.
"Imm." Nick started, moving from his seat onto the bed next to his daughter, pulling her onto his lap when she didn't move, "Let's show the Doctor your arm ok?" Slowly Imogen looked from Abby up to her father.
"Ok." Imogen conceded proffering her arm cautiously.
"Ok." Abby said gently inspecting the deep gash. "So have you and Lauren been getting into trouble any more recently?" Abby smiled at the little girl, noticing the freckles adorning the bridge of her nose for the first time.
"Not really, we've been really good." Imogen said earnestly.
"Oh yeah, not too good I hope." Abby said conspiratorially as Imogen smiled at her. She replaced the padding over Imogen's cut. "It looks like we're going to have to put some stitches in there." She said, looking at the little girl, smiling. "Can you tell me how you cut yourself?" She asked.
Imogen looked sheepishly back to her father, Nick looked at Abby and began. "We were just moving into our new apartment, she tipped a box up, I guess a plate or something must have broken in it, and it all came clattering out." Nick explained.
"Ok, well it' not too bad." Abby smiled.
"Will I get a scar?" Imogen said almost hopefully.
"Not a very big one I don't think." Abby assured her.
"Oh" Imogen said frowning disappointed.
"You want as scar?" Abby asked perplexed.
"Yeah, a big one, like Daddy's." Imogen told her hopefully, Abby glanced at Nick frowning slightly, he looked confused as well.
"Imm, what are you talking about." He asked her.
"Like the one on your tummy, I want one like that, so I can tell people I was attacked by a shark too." Imogen explained.
"Oh right." Nick frowned, laughing, understanding what his daughter was talking about.
"You were attacked by a shark?" Abby asked smiling dubiously at him.
"He wasn't really but that's what he tells people made his scar." Imogen confided.
"Stop giving my secrets away misses." Nick joked with her bouncing her on his lap, as she grinned wickedly.
"Ok, I'm going to have to give you a shot to make sure that it doesn't hurt too much, and then we'll see what we can do about that scar." She told Imogen smiling at her, "You're going to feel a little sting." She added approaching Imogen with the needle.
Imogen eyed the needle suspiciously pulling her arm back a little.
"Don't worry, I'll be gentile." Abby assured her smiling.
"Ok." Imogen told her quietly, showing a little fear for the first time.
Abby gave her the injection as gently as she possibly could, adding "See, hardly even hurt right?" Imogen shook her head smiling a bit more. "We just have to wait a couple of minutes until it goes numb and then we'll sew it up." She explained.
"Is Amelia working today?" Nick asked.
"No, she's got the weekend off I think." Abby told him moving to get the suture kit.
"Right, I called them about twenty minutes ago, I just got the machine, I thought she might be here." Nick answered.
"Nope." Abby half smiled at him.
"This is Amelia's hospital?" Imogen asked looking up at Nick.
"Yep." Nick nodded at her.
"This is Abby, Amelia's sister." Nick explained to Imogen.
"I know Daddy, I remember you from Lauren's house." Imogen said, rebuking her father, and then looking towards Abby. "Can I watch while you sew up my arm?" Imogen asked, almost completely unfazed now.
"You're going to have to ask you're Dad." Abby told her as she began the prep.
"My Daddy doesn't like blood and stuff, he's a big woos." Imogen explained.
"Is that right?" Abby smiled up at Nick.
"What can I say? I'm a sensitive new-aged male." Nick smiled back.
"Yeah looks like it." She added surveying the jock in front of her.
"I've had stitches before." Imogen told her, "On my head, under my hair." She added fingering a spot on the top of her head.
"So you know it doesn't hurt then."
"I was asleep when the doctors did it last time, I had to stay in hospital for three whole days." Imogen said wide-eyed.
"I don't think you're going to have to stay this time Immo." Nick said smiling down at her.
Really?" She asked looking at Abby for confirmation.
"No, I'm just going to make your arm better and then I think you'll be able to go straight home." She smiled getting down to business.
"You finished?" Chen asked seeing Abby in the lounge, exchanging her lab coat for a sweater.
"Yep."
"Plans for tonight?" Chen continued, bored and having no plans.
"Me, bath, TV, bed." Abby replied nonchalantly, with genuinely, absolutely no inclination to go out, or do anything else for that matter.
"Well in that case have a nice evening." Chen smiled making her way back out into the chaos as Abby left smiling to herself thinking 'I will, thank you very much Dr Chen.'
The El trip took almost no time at all as Abby half fell asleep, she was completely preoccupied by her own weariness, (a thirty six hour shift would do that to a person), the fact that she was about to become a doctor, and Nick and his daughter funnily enough, he primarily occupied her thoughts as she walked from the El to her apartment.
She struggled briefly getting her key into the front door, she was really just so tired that she wasn't concentrating, but she blamed the brisk October air anyway. As she finally got the lock open she made her way inside yawning, heading up to her apartment via her mailbox. She trailed up the last few stairs to her second floor apartment, sorting through her bunch of keys for those to her apartment. She looked up briefly noticing the guy standing across the hall, also searching for the right key.
"Hi." She smiled acknowledging the good-looking guy standing across from her.
"Hey," He smiled back, "you live here?" Nick asked indicating the vicinity as best he could.
"Looks that way yeah." She smiled stopping her search momentarily, giving her new neighbours her full attention. "You just moved in hunh?" She half questioned, half observed smiling at him.
"It would seem so." He replied, glancing down at the jumble of keys in his hand.
"You need a hand?" She offered.
"D'you have any idea which of these opens this door?" He asked holding out the mess of keys, re-adjusting Imogen on his hip.
Abby took the keys he offered her, sorting through them, finding the token bronze keys to the apartment doors, she tried one and then a second, finding it fit she opened his apartment door with ease.
"You're all set." She smiled as the dark apartment swung into view.
"Thanks." He smiled gratefully at her, "You want to come in for a coffee?" He offered quietly, mindful not to wake the child lolling off his shoulder.
"Umm…" Abby pondered not sure whether to accept or not.
"I mean only if you want, I don't want to be the pushy neighbour after only a day." He smiled good-humouredly at her.
"Sounds good." She smiled back following him into the apartment; it was only half seven after all.
"Awesome." He grinned happily, "Let me just put her into bed and I'll be right back." He added indicating the child on his hip. "D'you want to start the coffee machine, it's right there." He indicated his kitchen; their whole apartment was almost identical to Abby's only there were about a hundred boxes strewn all over the lounge floor and a second bedroom, she spied the upturned box that must have been the cause of their visit to the hospital, she found the kitchen with ease, working his hi-tech machine was a different challenge though.
"She out foxed you hunh?" Nick said reappearing by Abby's side, minus Imogen.
"What are you some kind of coffee guru?" Abby asked laughing at the machine and Nick.
"Hell yeah, only thing that gets me through a day." Nick said only half joking.
"So you and Amelia used to work together hunh, Thanks." Abby asked as Nick handed her a steaming mug.
"Um, we worked together in New York for a while." Nick answered taking a seat opposite.
"She said yeah." Abby nodded. "So how did all three of you end up out here?" Abby asked.
"Luck really, there was an opening at the firm I work at here that was the job Jasper wanted and so they headed this way, really though I like to think they just can't live without me." He grinned, Abby smiled back, humouring him.
"So who did you know first out of the two of them?" Abby asked frowning, "Amelia gave me some sketchy story about how you all knew each other." Abby said taking a long sip of coffee, her weariness evaporating slowly, she knew she was prying but figured he'd stop if he didn't want to go on.
"I actually knew Jasper's older brother long before I knew either of them, we were in school together when we were kids, then Jas moved over here to work and ended up at the same firm as me." Nick explained.
"I thought Jasper was British." Abby frowned; Nick's accent indicated that he definitely wasn't.
"Yeah, I lived over there until I was like ten, then I moved over here with my Dad, and I used to go back over there for vacation." Nick explained
"So then you met Amelia when she and Jasper got together?"
Nick chuckled slightly, "No, this is a very long and complicated story are you sure you want to hear about this?"
"Give me the short version." Abby smiled, wrapping her fingers round the mug, pushing him to go on, she still felt that she didn't know very much about Amelia before she turned up in Chicago and was eager to find out more.
"Ok, well." Nick took a deep breath settling into his chair. "Jas and I worked together at a firm in New York, he's a few years younger than I am, I was just a slow starter didn't go to law school until I was like twenty seven, so we were doing the same thing at the same time, but anyway." He shook his head getting off track, Abby nodded slightly, knowing exactly what he meant. "I worked in a bar in New York for years before that, and that's where I met Amelia, she turned up there one day out of the blue, this street smart sixteen year old, Christ ten years ago now, and stayed until she finished med school." Nick finished, the highlights of the story.
"Ok, I didn't think that she and Jasper had been together that long." Abby said frowning.
"No, no, they haven't, Japer moved over here god, probably five years ago now, but we used to be in the bar all the time, so they've known each other for a few years." Nick smiled.
"Did you and her ever?" Abby said smiling slightly, raising her eyebrows.
"Me and Meals?" He laughed at the idea, "Jesus no, I was far to old for her, Birdie would have killed me." He smiled, Abby scoffed having heard about Lauren's father, Nick paused, "She told you Martin hunh?" Guessing from Abby face that she was dubious about his age comment, Abby nodded assuming that they were talking about the same person. "Yeah well, he was and exception, I'm not entirely sure how he passed all our radars, especially Birdie's." Nick smiled.
"Birdie?" Abby frowned.
"She's not told you about Birdie?" Abby shook her head at the question. "Birdie and her husband own the bar, Amelia lived with them for ages, they were very protective of her, I think we all were actually." He smiled.
"So when did you move to Chicago?" Abby asked, changing the subject deliberately.
(If the lines appear I'm really sorry, I can't get rid of them!!)
.
"Christ," Nick frowned trying to remember, "Probably almost two years ago now, yeah Imogen must have been nearly three." He said scratching his head slightly. "How about you? You from here originally?" He asked turning the tables.
"Minnesota." Abby told him.
"Right yeah." Nick remembered Amelia having mentioned being born there. Abby frowned slightly at him; he took the hint and explained himself. "Amelia said she was born there."
"Oh right." Abby said suddenly uncomfortable, staring down into the depths of her dwindling coffee.
"Sorry I…" He paused, seeing Abby's expression change as she looked down.
"No, no, that's fine." She told him looking back up attempting to smile.
"It seems like you two get on though." He added, unsure of whether he was digging a deeper hole or rectifying the situation.
"Yeah, I guess we do, I," She paused looking back down, "She's tough not to get on with." She smiled shrugging.
You've obviously talked to her, she doesn't talk to people about Lauren's Dad much" He said with a reassuring, knowing smile.
"Yeah, we've talked but… it's just there's a lot of history I guess, I'm not sure if we've got to the pouring you're heart out stage yet." She smiled.
"Ahh, well, I'm sure you will." He smiled encouragingly.
"Maybe." She nodded wistfully.
"And you've picked yourself up a niece as well." Nick smiled, his soft spot for Lauren showing.
"Yeah, she's great." Abby smiled.
"She's trouble, especially when you combine her with that one in there." He nodded his head behind him indicating Imogen's room.
"She seems like a good kid as well, I've not seen many kids react like that when they're brought in." Abby assured him smiling again.
"Yeah, they both are really, she's pretty fearless, they've been completely inseparable since they moved out here, I think that the school despise us." He laughed.
"They can't be that bad." She defended the little girls.
"No their not, not really, but I don't think we do them any favours." Nick smiled.
"How so?" Abby frowned.
"I find it very hard not to find it funny, Jasper does too, you know, loads of parents I see at that school tell their kids off for getting messy, or misbehaving in class or whatever, you know? But Jasper and I struggle to take any of it seriously, and I think secretly Amelia does as well, their four years old, I couldn't care less if she came home covered in paint or mud or soaking wet or any of it, as long as she's had a good time, life gets too serious too quickly, if they get the opportunity to laugh it all off for a good few years yet then I'm all for it." Nick said smiling.
"That's a pretty philosophical view." Abby smiled at him,
"I'm a pretty philosophical guy." He smiled back, tipping himself back on his chair, reaching for the fridge, deftly he opened it pulling out a beer while carrying out his balancing act, he pointed it in Abby's direction, she nodded her ascent and he passed it to her, pulling another one out and returning his chair safely to the floor.
"If she did that she'd probably get told off y'know." She noted, talking about him swinging on his chair, twisting the top off the beer.
"Sure but she could get hurt doing that, no ones going to get hurt making a snowman out of mud." He explained his theory.
"They made a snowman out of mud, doesn't that sort of defeat the point?" Abby said a quizzical smile on her face.
"Yeah, I didn't quite get it either, but they obviously had a reason for doing it, Christ, Jasper and I got called in for that one, they've given up on us as disciplinarians I think, they call Amelia now before they even call me when Imogen's in trouble, she's the only one of the three of us who can manage not to laugh while we're in the principles office." He rolled his eyes running his hand through his hair.
"I wouldn't worry about it." Abby smiled, "My experience of principles offices is fairly broad, all I learned in there was that I didn't want to be a principle."
"And now you're a doctor." Nick smiled, offering a small toast with his bottle.
"Almost." She corrected him.
"So how long d'you have left before you officially become a doctor?" Nick asked.
"Not long actually, so there's hope for everyone." She smiled genuinely.
"Two Dr Mackenzie's at the same hospital, won't that get a little difficult?"
"I'm Lockhart." Abby laughed a little awkwardly.
"You married?" Nick frowned, noticing she wasn't wearing a ring.
"I was." Abby smiled, "But I've never been Mackenzie." She told him.
"You are Amelia's sister right?" Nick said suspiciously, a hint of laughter in his eyes.
"Half-sister." Abby explained.
"Oh, I didn't know that." Nick said raising his eyebrows.
"Yeah." She nodded, pouting slightly.
"So what did you do before you went to med school?" He questioned, eager not to put his foot in it yet again, on what was clearly a sensitive subject for her.
"I was a nurse actually." She smiled, raising her eyebrows.
"Really?" He asked, slightly surprised, as she nodded. "What made you want to switch?"
"I've been meaning to do it for a while, I started med school years ago, and had to quit, but then…" She trailed off shrugging.
"Time for a change?" He finished for her.
"Something like that yeah." She smiled nodding.
"Good for you." He said genuinely, smiling warmly at her.
"Thank you." The shrill ring of the phone interrupted them. "You going to get that?" Abby asked when Nick's only movement was back towards the fridge.
"No, the machine's on." He said pulling another beer out noticing Abby still had most of hers left.
"Nick, hi, it's Amelia." The machine began to speak. "We just got in, I just got you're message, what happened? You're cell's off, I'm guessing that you're still at the hospital, I'm gonna head to there now to check on you, I cant get through there either, if you get this message within the next twenty minutes give me a shout, I'll have my cell on." There was a pause, "I actually…" She started again as Nick grabbed the phone.
"Hey." He said into the phone. "Yeah, she's fine, yeah, she cut herself on something in one of the boxes, she had stitches but she's fine, Abby looked after her." He paused, glancing quickly at Abby, obviously still listening to Amelia. "Yeah, I know actually, she's come over for a drink, ok, yeah, thanks for calling Meals, yeah ok, bye." He finished hanging up, returning to his seat.
"She says hi, and also that apparently I've just moved into you're building." He smiled.
"Looks that way." Abby nodded, surveying the crowded living room quickly.
"I have no idea when I'm going to get all this stuff sorted out." Nick said glancing in the same direction as Abby.
"You need a hand?" She offered looking back at him raising her eyebrows.
"You don't have to." Nick shook his head.
"I've got nothing else to do other than read medical journals." She smiled.
"Any excuse hunh?" He grinned, knowing well the value of procrastination.
"Pretty much, yeah." She nodded.
"Well in that case, if you're sure you don't mind." He agreed, as they pushed their chairs back and stood up.
They'd spent almost an hour moving boxes into their allocated rooms, Imogen's room was the only one that had been set up as of yet, Abby noticed that it was definitely a guys packing, not one of the boxes was labelled, and as a result they had to open them all to see what was inside, eventually though everything had been identified, and they'd put most of the stuff away in the kitchen. Moving on to the living room, Nick set too wiring up his TV and stereo as Abby routed through the box of CD's.
"Oh my god." She laughed as she inspected his collection.
"What?" He asked turning around frowning with concentration.
"Spandau Ballet, are you serious?" She said holding out the embarrassingly eighty's music.
"They were very cool in their day." Nick defended himself from Abby's exceedingly sceptical look,
"When was their day exactly?" She asked feigning seriousness, he ignored the comment turning back to the TV, a couple of minutes passed before Abby came upon her next find.
"You can't own this." She said holding out a meatloaf album, wicked laughter twinkling in her eyes, "Or this." She added a Backstreet Boys album to the rapidly growing collection of horrendous CD's in her hand, "Oh my god." She repeated still laughing pulling out Neil Diamond, Celine Dion, and 'the hundred greatest show tunes'. She stared at him in awe of his scarily bad collection.
"Ok," He said dropping the screwdriver in his hand on the floor making his way over to her. "I don't think you can unpack this box any more." He said reaching to pull it away from her. "No, wait, I'm committed now." She said still trying to see inside the box.
He turned away, leaving her with her little selection in her hand plugging in the stereo and TV, he was quite impressed with himself when they both worked. He checked his watch, surprised to find it was after eleven.
"Christ, I think we might as well call it a day." He said turning back to Abby who was adding the CD's to those already on the shelf.
"God, yeah, I didn't realize it was that late." She said also glancing at her watch. She grabbed her bag and headed towards the door.
"Thanks so much for all your help today, with all this, and Imogen and everything." He smiled leaning against the door as she made her way across the hall to her own apartment.
"Don't mention it." She smiled, "I might have to borrow the hundred greatest show tunes though." She said her seriousness given away by the wry smile playing on her lips.
"Goodnight." Nick laughed, accepting he'd been given away by his music collection.
"Night." She said as she pushed her way into her own apartment.
(Ok, there we go with ch19, this is getting much longer than I thought it would be, the plot keeps changing in my head, so it's pretty much becoming my incoherent ramblings, I've got some plans though so if you're still interested give me a shout, also if you think my rambling is becoming too much then let me know and I'll stop!!
Someone already asked if Nick was going to become a bigger character, which he is so I'm thinking that this is relatively predictable! But I'll keep going regardless!
Carbybubbles, Cheers for the continued reviews, but Eric's not heading into this story for a while I'm afraid!!
Cheers, Let me know what u think xxx Kay