Abby crouched under all the gurney's searching desperately for her daughter. It had in fact been five hours since Alex had suggested the game and she was very worried.
"What are you doing dear" an old lady glanced down from her gurney.
"Oh I-I'm just checking all the gurneys."
"Did you lose something" she lifted a shaky hand and rested it on the side looking down as if to help Abby.
"Yeah you could say that."
"Oh well, she'll probably turn up where you least expect it."
"What?" Abby said surprised.
"The little girl? I overheard your announcement, have you checked all the cupboards?"
"I've looked everywhere." Abby sighed and smiled wearily at the patient, "Thanks anyway…"
"Mrs Granger dear, don't worry you'll find her."
Abby smiled and left her side.
"Hey Sam can you do me a favour, and get some bed linen from the cupboard downstairs." Susan yelled over.
"It's ok Sam I'll get it; I'm heading down there anyway." Carter looked up from a chart and smiled in the general direction of Sam.
"Thanks, Dr Carter."
"Sam where's Alex?" Abby eyes wondered over the nurse's station.
"He's in the staff room, why?"
"Uhh, no he's not."
"What I told him to stay in there. Have you still not found her?"
"No I need to speak to him about if they restricted the area or if told her she could go anywhere."
Both of them turned to see Luka and Alex emerge from the automatic doors laughing and joking.
"Luka!" Sam said angrily, "Where have you two been?"
"Uh we were playing video games across the street." Luka replied slightly confused by her accusation. Sam gave Alex a bad look and he just shrugged his shoulders.
"Alex did you tell her she could hide anywhere?" Abby bent down to his level so they were eye to eye.
"No, I said she could only go in the ER."
"I've searched the whole ER though, there's no where else she could be." Abby turned to see Carter walking towards with a large grin on his face. He was holding Liana in his arms and she wassound asleep.
"So Abby I'm down in the linen cupboard and I just happened to come across something which I thought might belong to you."
Abby giggled and sighed with relief; she walked across and stroked Liana's hair as she still slept.
"Hey that wasn't the ER, she totally cheated." Sam's murderous glare immediately shut Alex up and he cowered behind Luka. Liana's eyes fluttered open and a huge yawn emerged from her mouth. She looked up surprised to see Carter holding her.
"Mommy?"
"Yeah hunny" Liana turned her head and smiled when she saw her mum.
"He didn't find me! I won didn't I?"
"Yeah sweetie, maybe next time though if someone doesn't find you after maybe half an hour you should come out of your hiding place and call it quits. Five and a half hours hiding is a little excessive don't you think?"
Liana nodded sleepily and rested her head against Carter's chest.
"I still won though" she whispered to herself. Carter grinned at the little girl in his arms, realising how much he'd missed her since the break-up.
"It's ok Carter you can put her down."
Carter bent down and rested her on the ground, steadying her slightly as she lost her balance. Alex peered out from behind Luka and stuck his tongue out at her. Liana rubbed her eyes and copied him.
"Ok then I'm taking you home", Abby took Liana's hand.
"Am I not going to Mandy's?" Liana looked up at her confused.
"No not tonight."
"But our apartment's so cold." Liana whined.
Carter overheard their conversation and looked over concerned. Abby sighed and noted the fact he had just listened to what Liana had said.
"Our heating is not working, I haven't had time to get someone to fix it" Abby said quietly feeling like such a bad mother.
"I can come take a look at it if you want."
"Oh yeah I forgot you're able to use your magic hands to heal heaters as well." Abby rolled her eyes sarcastically.
"No seriously," Carter grinned, "I'll come over tomorrow and have a look at it."
"It's okay really."
"Abby, I'll come over tomorrow after work."
Abby scrunched up her nose, confused to why he was do concerned, "Uh sure ok. I'm off all day tomorrow so anytime."
"You're off all day tomorrow?" Liana tugged on her arm excitedly. Abby didn't hear her as she held Carter's stare with a smile on her face.
"Mum" Liana said impatiently.
"Yeah ok let's go." They gathered all their stuff together and left the ER. Abby walked home with a secret smile on her face.
Their answering machine message flashed two and Abby pressed the button praying there were no estranged messages from her family.
"Hi Abby, its Melissa. I was just making sure everything's ok, call me when you get this message thanks bye." Abby felt confused to why she shouldn't be ok and then she remembered.
"Liana" she hollered into the bedroom. Liana emerged when she was called, "What day's your soccer practise?" She thought for a moment, "Um Melissa takes me and Ally to soccer on Saturdays." Abby groaned dammit, she thought to herself that was the second week she'd forgotten.
"Mom did I miss soccer again," her mouth quivered and her eyes welled up with tears.
"It's ok you can go next week."
Abby was about to go comfort her when the second message started to play.
"Hi Abby it's Sam…I know you must be a little pissed about what Alex did today and he's very sorry for what he did." Sam's voice became louder and Abby could just see her saying the comment in Alex's direction.
"My babysitter has been rushed into hospital to have her appendix taken out, and I couldn't happen to over hear you were off tomorrow. It would really help me out if you just take Alex for maximum five hours. Either Luka or I will pick him up after our shift finishes. Call me or not depending how mad you are cheers."
Abby pouted and sighed in deeply.
"Liana, how would you feel about spending another day with Alex?"
She sniffed and nodded her head vigorously. "Okay then" Abby groaned and phoned Sam back saying she'd be more than happy to have Alex over.
That's a lie Abby thought to herself as she returned the phone to the receiver.