Chapter 2:
Abby wished that her shift would just fly by. She wanted to be home with Carter. She had missed him last night. She didn't know where they were going; the road had been bumpy to say the least. But someone had once told her that what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. She hoped that it was true. She hoped that everything that they had been through was just making them stronger as a couple. Nothing was the same anymore and it could never been the same. She wasn't sure how much closer she should let Carter get.
They were living together, but yet she still kept her distance from him. There was something inside of her screaming that she shouldn't get to close. But she couldn't explain to herself what that was. She didn't fear Carter at all, and she knew that he was not like Richard and wouldn't cheat on her. She knew Carter well enough to know that when he said that he would be there for her that was exactly what he meant.
He had been her best friend for a long time. And after what she had done, turning him in for his drug addiction, she was surprised that they were able to be friends. She had always assumed that Carter had forgiven her and that he knew that she was just looking out for him and for the patients that he worked on. She didn't want to see him ruin his career.
Maybe part of that was because even then she cared for him. Not the way that she did now, but more along the lines of a dear friend. John was her boyfriend now. How could she not let him into her life more? Maybe it was because she was afraid. Abby was still afraid that she could still end up bi-polar just like Maggie. The bi-polar ate at her like the dreaded disease that it was. She knew she was past the time of her life when she would have had her first break, but it was still there in the back of her mind, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to drag Carter fully into her crazy family.
She knew that Carter wanted children, and she knew that was something that she couldn't give him. She feared that her children would be bi-polar and that was something that she wasn't willing to pass on to anyone else. She had to grow up with it. Living through it once was enough. Dr. Weaver's voice snapped Abby from her thoughts.
"Abby we need you over here now." Dr. Weaver snapped at Abby for the second time.
Abby heard everything that was going on around her. She managed to follow and do what was needed but during the entire trauma that they were running she couldn't get her mind off of him.
They finished the trauma and Abby headed into the lounge and grabbed a cup of coffee. She stood there staring blankly at the wall. Thoughts of Carter consumed her. He was in her head all the time. She had never thought about anyone as much as she thought about him. They definitely had something special, she just wished that she was more prepared, better prepared to handle a serious relationship.
She walked out of the lounge and out the ambulance bay door and lit a cigarette that she pulled from her scrub jacket. Whether they were together or apart Carter was in her thoughts and she couldn't understand how after such a short period of time that he consumed her. She had never felt like this before. Richard, or Luka for that matter, was never in her head like this. If this was love, real love, she didn't know if she wanted it.
Carter's sleep was plagued by dreams. The sleep wasn't peaceful far from it. He ended up tossing and turning trying to get away from the painful visions that were flying before his eyes.
Abby at the time that Carter was at home sleeping busied herself in the ER. There was always something that needed to be done, even if it was slow. She made sure that all the crash carts were fully stocked and that the rooms had been fully restocked. She then changed all the IV bags that needed to be done. She then looked up at the clock for the hundredth time today. The clock said 4 now.
The end of her shift had come and she could now go home. She knew Carter would be there waiting for her, more than likely sound asleep. She put her things into the locker that they shared together. Carter had let her start using his locker when they started dating. She thought that was extremely nice of him, and it was nice not to have to stash her stuff at the admitting desk where it was out in the open.
Carter's dreams were intensifying. The horror that was flashing in his mind had him gripped in horror. His body broke out in sweat, he knew that in his dream state he needed to do something but he felt completely helpless to stop the images, images that to him were more real than any dream he had ever had.
She put her coat on. The weather was still as nasty if not worse than it was when she had come in that morning. She pulled her coat up around her neck as she headed for the platform. The wind was whipping around her, and it sent a chill thru her entire body. She hurried along to catch her train home. A rain had started to fall and it was being drilled at her by the wind. It cut thru her like a knife. Even her coat brought little protection against the weather.
She started up the stairs to the platform where the train would stop. She stood there; it didn't offer much protection from the elements. She tried to pull her coat closer around her to protect herself as much as she could from the cold and rain. She didn't see the man walk up behind her. For the first time in a long time, Abby wasn't worried about her surroundings. She had let her guard down while she was standing there waiting to go home.
The man dressed in dark clothing stopped behind Abby. He was silent as he came up upon her, and she wasn't aware that he was there behind her until she felt a hand on her shoulder and then a searing pain in her back.
"That's what you get for being a part of taking my life away," she heard a voice say as the stranger drove the knife into her back again, "I hope that doctor of yours suffers just as I did."
Abby knew that voice, but how, he was supposed to be locked up in a mental institution. How could he be standing there on the platform with her? "Paul." She barely got out.
"Don't worry love it won't hurt for long. I should have killed him when I had the chance, but for him losing you will make his life even more miserable. Since I lost the chance to be with my wife and baby." He stabbed the knife into her back twice more. Abby started to slump to the ground. She was losing consciousness fast.
Paul quickly pulled her over and sat her on a bench. He sat down next to her putting his arm around her shoulder so that those passing by would think that they were just sitting and waiting for another train. He hoped that it would take people awhile to realize what had happened to her and by then it would be to late for her. Paul knew that sitting there was dangerous but no one seemed to give a second thought to what appeared to be a couple sitting there. He watched as another train pulled into the station. He had been sitting there with her for a good 15 minutes now. He left her sitting there smiling as he stepped onto the train that had just stopped. He watched her body go limp as the train pulled away from the station.
Abby wanted to cry out, but her voice was nothing more than a whisper not able to be heard above the sounds of the train and the bustle of people hurrying by to get out of the wind. She knew that something was wrong and that she was bleeding but she couldn't move everything was going dark around her right now as she slowly began to fully fade from the world of the living.
