You didn't have to do that
The long shift continued and Abby kept running herself into the ground. She was trying to pick up as many nursing shifts as she could, but the more that she worked, the more tired she got. She still was going to end up being short to pay spring tuition and right now she was running out of options.
Carter just kept watching her work; he wanted to help her out but knew that she probably wouldn't willingly take the help. He knew that she wasn't going to be able to make tuition, he had overheard a conversation that she had, had with Kerry. He could help with that and he reached the decision to do something about it with out talking to Abby first.
He knew that she was probably going to be very mad at him for this one, but he couldn't let her keep working herself into the ground like she was. She had very little time for studying working twenty-four to thirty-six hours straight in order to make the shifts that she thought she needed and any down time that she had she usually had her nose buried in a book trying to keep up with the studying that she needed to do as well.
They were both working and their were ample patients in the ER today most of the cases that they had today were minors it had turned into a slow trauma day and you couldn't help but be thankful for that. There was something about the day lacking bloody traumas that just made it go a little easier, and maybe that's because patients were less likely to die from the minor cases than the complicated near death ones.
"Hey Abby," Carter said as he crossed through the ER heading back towards the admit desk. He was meandering a little but today he was giving the med students and the interns a little more in the patient care department, he was more in an overseeing mode and letting them do most of the work.
"What Carter?" She asked as she looked up from the chart that she was looking at to see him standing not more than five feet away from her now.
"The patient in two, is that one yours?" Carter asked glancing between the chart that was in his hands and her.
"Yeah he's mine." Abby said, "is there something wrong? Did I miss something?"
"No you didn't miss anything." He said holding the chart out to her. "I signed off on it for you."
"Oh well thanks." Abby said.
"You're plan looks good go ahead with it." Carter picked up another chart. He wasn't trying to be condescending with her but it was a feeble attempt to let her know that she was doing a good job.
She just shrugged her shoulders. She knew what she was doing and hearing him say that really didn't do much for her. She didn't think that he would have disagreed with her plan. It was just an ear infection. There wasn't many options when it came right down to it.
The morning turned in afternoon and during his lunch break Carter decided that it was time to take action. He paid Abby's tuition for her, getting her caught up until graduation so that she could take a few less nursing shifts and focus on other things.
Abby was looking over the nursing schedule now to see if there was any way that she could pick up maybe one or two more shifts, there were none that she could take that they needed filled because the conflicted with her rotation. She wasn't sure what she was going to do now.
Carter found her again later that afternoon, "want to go to dinner tonight?"
"Can't Carter." She said looking at him, "I have to work tonight and then try and see if I can't find a few more shifts." She placed the chart back into the rack, "I'm going to see if maybe I can't float some up in OB."
Carter bit his lip as he tried to figure out how to say this, "still worried about making tuition?" It was a rather dumb question but it would lead them into the conversation that he needed to have with her.
"You know I am." She said not looking at him anymore as she tried to concentrate on what she was doing.
"You don't have to." He said, "it's all taken care of."
Abby looked at him for a minute, "you are kidding me Carter?" She said softly, "what you didn't?"
He backed a step away from her fully expecting Abby to smack him. "Yeah I kind of did."
"Carter you shouldn't have done that." She said this was something that she wanted to do herself. But now that it was done there wasn't much that she could do about it now even if she wanted to. She let out a giant sigh, "I'll pay you back Carter."
"You don't have to do that Abby." Carter said. He didn't want to have this conversation with her right now, not while they were both working in the ER. "We can talk about this later okay?" He softly kissed her cheek now.
Abby was definitely upset with what he had done. She knew why he had done it but that didn't make her any happier with the situation that she had found herself in. She wished that he would have just let her handle this herself.
She went back to work, trying not to think about what he had done, but it was in the front of her mind no matter what he did. As she worked she found herself thinking that if he had just talked to her that they might have been able to come to some sort of an agreement, but he decided that he would just take care of it on his own. Carter had a point though, she was arguing with herself right now. She wouldn't have been receptive to the idea of him paying it and she probably would have told him no anyway.
There had to have been another reason that he had done it, paid her tuition that is. Did he feel that he owed it to her for some reason? She wasn't sure what to think anymore. She just wanted to stop thinking about it.
Carter finished up his shift and then waited for Abby in the lounge. He knew that she said she was working tonight but eventually she would have to come in there. She finally showed her face in the lounge as she got herself a cup of coffee.
"Are you mad at me?" He asked, pretty sure what the answer to that one would be. It was written on her face when she looked at him.
"Mad at you?" She repeated back to him. "I'm not sure what I am right now. I think that I just want to know why you did it?"
"You were wearing yourself pretty thin trying to cover all those shift and I thought that since I could help you that it made sense to do it." Carter said.
"Oh so you did it because you were worried about my health?" Abby asked.
"That is part of it." Carter said. "It was something that I could do. I thought that you might like the chance to have the time to sleep, to study, without worrying about how you were going to pay for tuition. I thought that you might like the break."
"It's not that I don't appreciate what you have done Carter." Abby said looking at him. "But I am still going to have to take on some nursing shifts at least until I graduate so that I can pay the bills."
"Why won't you let me help with anything Abby?" Carter asked looking at her. "I mean we are living together, there's no reason that you couldn't let me help with things a little more than I am."
"Yeah well," Abby said not sure what to say, "I guess I like to do things myself. And you do still have your own apartment, so we're not really living together you just spend most of your time over at the apartment."
"That could change." Carter said, "we've been dating for awhile things are going good between us, there's no reason we should maintain separate living spaces."
Abby took a few steps back away from him now. "I don't think so Carter." She wasn't ready at this point in her life to take that step with the relationship, that would make it seem to permanent and she didn't want to do that. She was too scared to take that step.
"Why not?" Carter asked.
"I'm not ready; I don't want to make things permanent like that yet." She said being serious with him.
"What would change?" Carter asked not seeing why she was having such a hard time with this. "Other than the fact that I would no longer have an apartment."
"It means that you would always be at the one that is currently my apartment." Abby said looking at him; it was her turn to turn off the conversation. "I have to get back to work Carter; we can talk about this later."
"Okay sure," He said standing up off the couch. He wasn't sure which apartment that he was going to go back to odds were that he would end up back at hers just because that's where he always seemed to end up these days.
"I'll be home later." Abby said giving the hint where she expected him to be if he wanted to talk to her, "I'm off as soon as I finish this shift."
"Yeah I guess then I will see you when you are off." He replied back.
"Yeah you will." She said as she darted back out the door to go back to work. She wasn't looking forward to having that conversation with him and she knew that he would, as he always did, find flaws in her ways of thinking. They could for the most part get along, but Carter it seemed, was always right.
