Chapter 6:

Carter watched Maggie walk away to leave and he turned to go back to Abby. He stood outside her room door just looking at her. She was curled up in a small ball on the bed. She looked so upset and hurt. He knew that she had to be confused and hurting.

"I heard she woke up."

A voice pulled Carter from his thoughts and he turned to see Susan standing there. "Yeah she's awake." His voice was soft.

"You don't sound too thrilled there Carter." Susan said giving him an odd look.

"No I am thrilled; it's just not quite what I expected." He said. Carter's eyes were still on her watching her laying there. "She doesn't remember much."

"About the stabbing?" Susan asked him.

"The stabbing, she threw out Maggie, and she doesn't remember that we were even dating. She even asked who I was." Carter told Susan.

Susan was silent as she thought about what he was saying. They were lucky that she was alive and none of them should have expected Abby to be the Abby that she was before all of this.

They both stood there now looking at her. That was there friend laying there and they both knew that she was going to need more support and all the friends that she could have around her right now.

"What do you think Carter?" Susan said, "Do you think she would remember me?"

Carter shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know if Abby would remember Susan. He wasn't sure where her memories stopped. "I'm not sure what all she remembers. I think she has some memories of working here. She seemed not to upset when I told her that." Carter kept going, "but she doesn't remember being stabbed, which means that we're no closer now that she's awake to knowing who stabbed her than we were when she was out. I think I know who it was but I just have a suspicion nothing solid."

"What do you mean Carter?" Susan asked as she pulled him away a little more from Abby's room so that they could sit and talk some. He seemed to be holding it together by a thin thread right now. She didn't want him to snap from all of this.

"I had this nightmare." Carter said looking over at Susan; she was one of his best friends. "And in my nightmare I saw almost exactly what had happened to her."

"Oh man Carter," Susan said, "I didn't know. Who do you think it might have been?" She was taking what he said seriously.

"I think it was Paul Sobriki." Carter said his voice conveying just how serious about this he was.

Susan put her hand on his leg giving it a gentle pat, "whose that John?" It was very seldom that Susan ever used his first name but right now with the way that they were talking it seemed most appropriate.

"Do you remember when I was telling you about the stabbing and the drug addiction?" He asked her.

Susan nodded her response, "yeah I remember you telling me about that."

"That was the man who stabbed Lucy and I and I think he's the one that stabbed Abby as well." Carter said.

"But I thought that you also said that they locked him up in a mental hospital after he did that. And he thought that you were trying to steal his organs, why would he go after Abby." She replied back to him.

"I don't know Susan." Carter said looking down and then towards Abby's room. "I don't know why he would go after Abby, but I'm telling you that's the man that I saw standing behind her on the platform and it was shortly after that you and Kerry found her dying."

"I don't know what to say Carter." Susan said shocked about how much he actually knew about Abby being stabbed. For a dream that he had it seemed to be founded in reality.

"All I can tell you is what I saw in the dream Susan." Carter said letting out a soft sigh. "I can't explain any of this. I couldn't begin to explain it if I wanted to."

"No I bet you couldn't." She said giving him an off the wall look. "It's amazing how much you know from the dream it seems so real."

"Tell me about it Susan. I was helpless and couldn't do anything in my dream to help her and right now there isn't anything I can do for it. I watched Sobriki drive that knife into her back four times and leave her on the bench like that bleeding while he sat with her and people passed by as if they were this happy couple. He was there while she was dying and I couldn't help her then."

Susan tried not to gasp now. How could he know where they had found her, so many details like he knew, it just seemed surreal to her that a dream would tell him so much.

Carter was on the verge of crying once more again. It didn't seem real that this was happening to them. This was one of the hardest things that he had, had to deal with in his entire life. They were so close to being happy and now this.

"Carter, I'm sorry." She had her doubts now, "you were at home right?" She couldn't help but ask. "I mean you weren't anywhere near here when this happened right?"

"Yes," Carter said defending what he had said, "you aren't implying what I think you are Susan."

"You just know so much about something that you say you couldn't control and for a dream it just seems almost too real." Susan was worried now was she sitting next to someone who could be cold enough to try and kill another person. Surely he wouldn't have had to have resorted to those methods.

"Susan I did not hurt Abby, I could never hurt Abby." He said standing up and walking a few steps away from her, "I can't believe that you would think that I would do something like that."

"I don't know anymore Carter." Susan said, "I'm sorry if I've upset you, but you are blaming this on a man who is locked up in a mental hospital you just don't stroll away from those for a few hours so that you can stab someone that you don't know."

"I can't explain it Susan, really I can't but I did not hurt Abby!" He tried not to yell at her but he couldn't believe that she was even suggesting such a thing. "I would never hurt her, I love her."

"I know Carter." Susan said softly but she still had her doubts. Doubts that she couldn't shake. Granted the Carter that she knew wasn't a violent person, but he had really been through a lot in the past few years and sometimes people changed right under your eyes and you never saw it until it was too late.