Chapter 4:

"Abby!"

"Huh," her head snapped around to see who was yelling at her. She had drifted off into her own little world of thought again. There was a certain doctor that had been running around who was at the moment the center of her attention.

"Mr. Daniels in three his IV bag needs changed, and curtain 2 needs another dose of Lasix." Ah a doctor barking orders at her, she would have rather stayed in her own little world rather than come back to that.

"I'm getting there." She casually replied back not thinking much of anything but trying to pull her mind back to the task at hand.

"What's up with Abby and Carter today?" Pratt asked Neela as they stood at the admit desk, "she's never been this off and well Carter's not fairing much better, he's lost three sets of x-rays and two charts."

"Men are the most dense species on the planet." Neela replied back to him, "please Abby and Carter are dating again. They have preoccupied by love syndrome today. I think it's been awhile since they've gone out."

"I am not dense." Pratt said in his defense, "how do you know they are going out again. I didn't hear anything about that in the gossip mill."

"Oh please, it's old news. They've been seeing each other for awhile now." Neela couldn't help but roll her eyes, "you need to find a new branch of the gossip tree if you didn't get that tidbit." She picked up a chart and started to walk away, "that and Abby told me."

Pratt just shook his head as he watched her walking away. Women always had the inside edge when it came to all the good gossip. Or that's how it seemed they had this natural instinct and could smell it a mile away.

He glanced Abby's direction and noticed that she had managed to at least get as far as the drug lock up before getting distracted again.

"Yeah I know, I have tomorrow off maybe we can do something then." She said.

"Can't I have to work tomorrow morning," Carter replied back. "How about tonight what time are you off?"

"Seven." Abby said, "we could grab something to eat."

"That would work." Carter said.

"When is your next day off?" Abby asked

"Lockhart my patients." Pratt yelled down the hall towards her.

"In a minute Pratt, I'm getting there." She responded back, "you're next day off?" She repeated to Carter.

"Tuesday." He answered her, "you have tomorrow off when else?"

"We could get together Tuesday that should work for both of us or you could meet up with me when you get off tomorrow night."

"I might be stuck here kind of late."

"That's okay you have a key you can let yourself in." She smiled when she said that.

"Open invite?" He said leaning in to give her a quick kiss on the forehead, completely aware now of the evil eye coming from Pratt.

"Anytime." She smiled up at him now, "I'd better get going before Pratt has blood vessel in his head explode."

"Yeah you had better. I have patients that I need to get to if I want to get out of here on time."

Abby just shook her head, "yeah you'd better. I'd hate to miss dinner with you cause you are sucked into and stuck in the ER vortex."

Carter stood up from where he had been leaning on the opening to the lockup. "Yeah I'll see you when I am done. Don't let Pratt push you around, he gives you trouble I can give him some trouble too."

That made Abby laugh, "don't worry Dr. Carter, I think I can handle Dr. Pratt."

"I know you can." He smiled as he started to disappear down the hallway.

Abby got what she needed and then started off in the direction of Pratt's patients.

"You going to be able to tear yourself away from Dr. Love there to give me a hand?" Pratt said rather sarcastically.

"At least I have a Dr. Love in my life, which is more than I can say for you right now. There Dr. Lonely."

"I'm not lonely I'm just a little more picky than you are and don't want to restart anything with any of my ex's."

"Must be quite a wake there then Pratt if you are still single after all this time." Abby said as she adjusted the new IV that she was hanging. "What have you dated anyone other than Deb since you've been here?"

"I'm not giving you any new material for the gossip tree." Pratt said as he examined a patient next to where Abby was working.

"Oh no, you can't do that," she poked back to him, "god forbid we talk about the all mighty Dr. Pratt."

"Yuck it up there Nurse Firecracker."

The patient that Pratt was tending to looked up at them, "what are you too married or something?"

"Oh god no." Abby said, "we'd kill each other."

"Yeah we sure would. We just work together that's all." He said to the patient, "and now she's going to make sure that you get taken up to x-ray we need a chest film."

"All right Doctor." Abby said emphasizing the word doctor.

"You'll be in good hands with Nurse Lockhart." Pratt said back, "just talk to her all you want about Dr. Carter and she should remember to pay attention to you."

"Ha very funny Pratt." She said as she moved over to help get the patient up to x-ray. "Better be careful or I might have to start some rumor about you and you know how hard they are to stop once they get going."

"Yeah beautiful." Pratt poked back, "I'm sure that you'd make it really good too."

Abby just shook her head as she headed off to radiology with her patient in tow. She was looking forward to getting off shift and spending some time with Carter.