Changes
Author's Note: Yes I know it has been ages since I updated this story, but I have major writer's block, but I'm back now, I promise I will update more often! Thanks for Heather for editing this for me.
Chapter 17
"Abby" I hear someone yell, "Abby" yells Carter.
"Hey, you off?"
"Yeah, you?"
"Yeah, Coffee..?"
"Sure"
"So do you see Susan much?" Carter asked me, as I was drinking my coffee.
"I tried as much as I can but with med school it is hard. She can't wait for the baby to just come," I laughed.
"I know how she feels," Carter said. "I can't wait until my son is born,"
Abby nodded. "So how's Kem doing?"
"She's doing good, getting bigger."
"And med school, how's it going?" Carter asked.
I smile. "It's going well."
"So you're doing your psych rotation, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I actually think I like it."
And then silence, neither of us know what to say, but silently acknowledging the fact that my 'family dynamics' make it easy for me to enjoy and understand the field.
Suddenly Carter's pager went off. "I should get back,"
"Yeah, me too" I said, as I got up and walked out of the Jumbo Mart.
Later that day,
I close my locker, and start to think about what Kerry told me. Who would pay my tuition off? I'm really surprised that it happened, but I don't know who would have enough money to do it, or who would want to for that matter.
I'm being stupid, there's only one person with that much money to spare. Grabbing my bag, I walk out of the lounge on my quest to find Carter.
"Jerry, you see Carter lately?"
"Yeah, he's outside waiting on a MVA"
I walk out and there he is, just standing there..
"What are you doing?"
"I'm waiting for an ambulance" he tells me.
"Carter"
"What?"
"I'm not taking your money," He then looks up at me. "What are you talking about?" he says with a smile.
"I'm not one of your charities"
"Oooooh, I was hoping to count you as one of my friends" he replies. I look at him; I do still count him as one of my friends, maybe not best friends like we were before. But still not close enough to take large sums of money.
"Neither borrower nor lender be."
He looks at me, his expression changing to seriousness. "Abby, I'm not loaning you the money, I'm giving it to you. I want you to think of it as an investment in the future of medicine."
I laugh. "You'd be better off with tech stocks"
You know, in the time it's taken us to have this little conversation I've made your salary, for the rest of your life, in interest." he replies.
"Wow, when you put it that way, how about a couple of extra grand for a new car!" I say, laughing.
A motorcycle drives into the ambulance bay; my ride is here.
"Hey, you can't park there; this is where we park the ambulance,"
"He's with me," I reply. This is our first date. I don't know exactly how it's going to go, but I can at least try.
"I'll pay you back," I say to him as I board the bike. As we drove away, I'm sure that I heard Carter said to that we should be using our helmets.
I smiled to myself, for the past few months I have been working on becoming a doctor; I haven't had time to have a social life, but tonight that is going to change, I'm not going to think about work or school, just about having a good time.
The next morning,
I'm getting ready, and the phone starts ringing. "Hello?"
"So how did it go?" Susan asks. I put my cup of coffee on the kitchen counter, and sit down.
"It was fine; he left a few hours ago." I say, with a grin on my face.
"Oh Abby…" Susan laughs. "I didn't think you would go that far on the first date,"
"It wasn't our first date, we went out a few times before," I replied, she doesn't need to know the truth. "But I don't think I will be seeing him again though,"
"Why not?" Susan asks. "Was he not…"
"I'm not talking to you about my love life, or lack of it. I'm drawing the line here," I reply, laughing. Taking a sip of my coffee.
"We decided that it just wouldn't work out with my long shifts at the hospital, and everything." I then explain to Susan everything that happened last night.
"I'm sure that you will find the right person, I did, and I look at me, I'm really happy," Susan said.
"That's not what you told me last week; you were cursing the baby out of you,"
Susan laughed. "Okay maybe I did say that, but it's just because I don't want to be on bedrest anymore."
I look at the clock. I need to get to work or I'm going to be late. "I'm sorry Susan, but I've got to get ready to go"
"Have fun at work"
"Right, have fun watching TV and laying on the couch all day. See ya"
I sigh to myself, I wish that I could be in a real relationship, but right now in my life I have to think about med school, and becoming a doctor. I don't have time for a love life.
I pick up my jacket, and all I can think about is yesterday in the Psych ward, and how my rotation is going. It took a while for me to get the patients to listen to me, but all it took was for me to light up a cigarette and then they all started to talk.
The scariest thing is that I am closer and closer to becoming Dr. Lockhart.
Dr. Lockhart, I am beginning to like that. And knowing that I wont have to pay loans off for the rest of my life is comforting, I still don't understand why he did that, it's not like we're a couple anymore, he doesn't need to do stuff like that for me. But I guess in some ways, he feels like we are still close.
If you told me a year ago that I was going to want to become a doctor after all these years, I would have laughed at you. But now becoming a doctor is my life… And between med school and work, I don't have much of a life, but I wouldn't want it any other way.