Survival
Disclaimer - I own nothing.
A/N - A story about a rescue mission to the Congo, and the love that binds Abby and Carter together. Ahhhhh!
Chapter One - Setting the Scene.
It was a normal Chicago evening. Autumn had arrived swiftly after summerhad departed and it was normal for the winds to be blowing stronger and for the air to be turning colder as the days passed by. The County Cook general hospital was reaching one of its busiest periods. Everyday, more and more patients would roll in through the ER doors, demanding attention to their often not serious conditions.
The staff were coping reasonably well with the stress although soon they would be two doctors down. Carter and Abby were heading off to the Congo on a rescue mission. They had been married for five happy years and although Carter had been back to Africa three times since the departure of Kem, it was to be Abby's first visit. They were not going to the usual region of the Congo that Carter was used to, but a rather desperate situation a few hundred miles south. A town called Kaburh. Well, it used to be a town. People were suffering there. The rebels had recently passed through Kaburh, leaving destruction and massacre in its wake.
People were dying there; children were losing their parents before losing their own lives. Carter and Abby were joining a UN group who was heading to Karburh in the hope of preventing further decline. Carter had insisted at first that he was to go alone. He was well aware of the danger he would be in and he did not want Abby coming with him. But, Abby was insistent and would not be left behind. The hospital was sponsoring them and was on the look out for two new doctors to cover. Abby had only qualified as a doctor a year ago but was extremely competent and often showed up other medics. Carter was very proud of her, he knew how much she had wanted to become a doctor and was ecstatic when she learned she had passed. Soon after Abby had qualified, Carter had asked her out on a date. They had been there before, he knew that but he knew that they were meant to be. He had been devastated when his baby had died, and was crushed when Kem had turned down his proposal to be his wife and had returned to the Congo. Carter had relied on two people for support. Luka and Abby. They had been great. He expected it of Luka for they had become very close friends after their experience in the Congo, but he was shocked at the amount of time Abby had made for him. He knew how hard it had hit Abby when he had returned with Kem. He wished he hadn't written that letter and hadn't paraded his fiancée around in front of her, and so didn't expect Abby to be so warm towards him. But that's what real friends do. They forget the past when someone is suffering and they show their true selves. Susan was also a good friend but she had shied away
a little from Carter as she had her baby boy, Cosmo soon after his baby had died. It was too raw to see her or the baby, but she had kept in contact throughout.
That was over five years ago now. Of course the pain of losing a child never completely goes away, it just lessons as each day passes. He could still remember every second of that day. It brought a tear to his eyes sometimes, but then he would see Abby smiling at him and giving him a big hug, and sometimes he would cry a little on her shoulder and then he would feel better. They were soul mates.
Everybody had known that except them.