Chapter 4:
Maggie got to Chicago as fast as humanly possible. Her little girl needed her now. The train ride was long. If she hadn't been terrified of flying she would have taken a plane, but that wasn't an option.
"Jerry," She said as she walked into the ER, "where's Abby?"
"She is up in the SICU." Jerry said looking at Maggie, "Carter is up there with her, he hasn't left her side since it happened."
"Thanks." Maggie said looking at Jerry, before she headed over to the elevators and up to the SICU. She wasn't sure where to go from there, but she had to find her daughter.
Maggie walked up to the SICU nurse's station. "Can you tell me where I can find Abby Lockhart?"
"She's right over there." There nurse said pointing to the room that was just right across the hall.
"Thank you," Maggie said as she headed toward the room.
The nurse stopped her before she could walk inside. She wasn't trying to be cold towards the woman, but there were rules in the SICU for a reason and it was her job to enforce them. That and Dr. Carter told her that no one should bother them unless it was an emergency. Abby needed the quiet to rest so that she could recover. "Only family members are allowed to visit in the SICU."
"I am." Maggie said looking at the nurse, "I'm her mother."
The nurse stepped back. She had never met Abby's mother and really didn't know Abby all that well herself. "Go ahead then."
Maggie walked into the room. John was sitting there next to Abby with his head resting against the bed. He hadn't left her side in two days. He didn't want Abby to be alone. He couldn't leave her side, not while she was like this. It had been so touch and go with her the last couple of days. He wasn't sure if she would ever be the Abby he remembered.
He lifted up his head when he thought that he had heard someone enter the room. "Maggie you made it."
"I came as fast as I could John. How is she doing?" Maggie asked as she stood next to her daughter.
"As well as can be expected." Carter said looking up at her, he ran his hand through his hair, "she's been touch and go ever since the surgery Maggie. Abby lost a lot of blood while she was sitting up there. Her heart stopped and we don't know how long she was down. There's no telling when she might wake up and that's if she might wake up."
"Will she be okay?" Maggie asked.
"They don't know Maggie. I don't know" Carter said to her. He looked down at Abby. The color had started to return to her cheeks but she was still pale. Abby was still was still on the vent which in itself wasn't a good sign. "She hasn't come off the vent yet which isn't a good sign." He had been trying to prepare himself mentally incase it swung either way. They had, had a few close calls with her, part of the reason that he hadn't left for more than a few minutes at a time.
"Oh god." Maggie said as she started to cry.
"We have to have faith that she will pull through." Carter said to her. He wasn't sure now if he was trying to reassure Maggie or just to keep her from falling apart not knowing if he could keep it together himself.
"I know John." She replied trying to get the tears under control.
"Maggie, I love your daughter, we will get through this." Carter said, "It's just going to take some time." He reached down and gently pushed her hair away from her face. There would have been silence in the room except for the machines that reminded them both that Abby was not all the way there with them. That her life could go either way. She would either pull through this or heaven help them all she could die.
Carter looked down at Abby lying there. She was as beautiful as they day he had kissed her during the small pox scare. He couldn't imagine his life with out her now. She had to pull through. Carter's hand drifted away from her head now as he took her hand into his and squeezed her hand. He leaned down and gently kissed her forehead. "I love you Abby." He whispered in her ear.
He at that moment just happened to glance at a monitor. There was an extra blip on the breathing strip. He watched it for a minute. There was another one, followed by another, she was breathing over the vent. He glanced at Maggie, "she's starting to breathe on her own Maggie, and she's coming back to us." Carter let the tears start to flow from him eyes. She was coming back to them, after all she had been through Abby was coming back to them; it looked like she was fighting her way back.
Carter still hadn't left her side, as the days passed and she slowly started to come back to the world of the living. Abby was a fighter. Carter was there when they pulled the vent and she breathed her first breath of air with out any more help from the machines. It had been almost a week now since she had been stabbed and left for dead on the platform where she was supposed to take the EL to their home. They had weaned her completely off of the oxygen. He just needed her to wake up now. She still hadn't regained consciousness, but she was getting there. Every day there was more small improvement.
Carter was sitting there with her; Maggie had gone to get them some coffee. He was starting to look pretty ragged and had a shadow from not shaving. He held her hand sitting there in the silence.
Abby's eyes fluttered slightly a sign that she was still in there and wanted to wake up. Carter about jumped out of the chair when he saw that small sign of life, that minor improvement over how she had been doing.
He moved closer to her, now sitting on the edge of the bed, "baby." He said to her, "come on open your eyes, I know you want to."
Abby's eyelids fluttered again. She wanted to wake up. She could hear his voice. She could hear John calling to her. Her eyes were so heavy and she was having a hard time getting them to listen to her.
"I'm here," He said, "I here waiting for you Abby, come back to me please, come back to me baby."
Abby wanted to come back, she did, but right now she was just to tired there was no way that her eyes were going to open. Her head was in this fog and she felt funny. There was pain in her back but not enough to jar her from her sleeping state.
Carter knew that it was going to take some time, but the movement of her eyelids gave him a new hope. A hope that he hadn't had in days now. Worried that she wasn't going to wake up. That fear had been lifted from his shoulders now and he would continue his vigil by her bedside until she was fully back with them.
