We Used To Be Friends

Chapter Twenty

A/N: I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. I know I had a lot of fun writing the ending of this chapter. Oh, and sorry about the mini-cliffhanger. It couldn't be avoided. Enjoy!

"Want a ride to work?" Carter asked, seeing Lucy sitting on the couch as he entered the living room. "I'm going there in about a half hour."

"It's Valentine's Day. Don't you have plans with Abby or something?" Lucy asked.

"No, actually I don't." He replied, sitting next to her on the couch. "I took over Dave's shift so that he could spend time with Shelby."

"That was nice of you." Lucy praised. "But wasn't Abby upset about that?"

"I don't know. I have sort of been avoiding her lately." Carter replied guiltily.

"Why?" She asked, thankful that they could talk about his problems and not hers for once.

"I want to break up with her, but it wouldn't be very nice to do that on Valentine's Day. So I'm waiting a couple of days." Carter explained.

She had been waiting for Carter to dump Abby ever since they started dating, but now that it was actually going to happen she didn't know what to do. She loved him. That much was true, but the last thing she needed right now was to get involved with anyone. She had enough on her plate and wasn't sure she would be able to handle any kind of romantic relationship. To be truthful, she wasn't sure she would ever be able to handle a romantic relationship. "So why are you breaking up?"

"She's not m soul-mate. I don't love her, and it wouldn't be fair to stay in the relationship." Carter explained. "So, do you want that ride?"

"Sure." She replied, giving a small smile.

"Mr. Sobricki, I'll be back later to check on you." Lucy plastered on a wide smile at her patient before leaving. As soon as she was out in the hallway, the smile faded from her face.

"Hey." Carter greeted, appearing at her side.

"Hey." Lucy greeted back.

"How's your work load tonight?" He asked, making sure that she wasn't taking on too many patients now that he knew she was pregnant.

"It's pretty light. There aren't a lot of people here tonight." She replied. When they reached the admit desk, she stopped. "Jerry, has anyone from Psych come down to take a look at Mr. Sobricki?"

"No, sorry Lucy." Jerry replied.

"But it's been over an hour since I last paged them." She sighed. "Can you please page them for me again? I think there might be something really wrong with him."

"Sure thing." Jerry smiled, already picking up the phone.

"Thank you." She continued on her way into the lounge and didn't think that Carter would follow her, but he did.

He looked around the lounge and was glad to see that they were alone. While Lucy was getting a bottle of water from the refrigerator, he poured himself a cup of coffee. After taking a look on the table, he started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Lucy asked as she sat on the couch and started drinking her water.

"It's this blue cake." Carter pointed.

She looked over at the cake. "Why is there a blue cake for a Valentine's Day party?"

"I don't know. I wonder how much longer we're going to have to wait to cut into it. I'm starting to get hungry."

"You're always hungry." Lucy pointed out with a smile.

He nodded, sitting down next to her on the couch. "So, have you given any more thought to what you're going to do about the, you know…"

She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. "I don't think that right now is a very good time to be discussing this." She didn't want to talk about it, but that was basically because she didn't think that Carter would like her decision.

"Why not? We're alone." He pushed.

"Someone could walk in at any moment and hear what we're talking about." Lucy pointed out.

He saw what she was doing. "You just don't want to talk about it because you've already made up your mind, haven't you?"

"I haven't made any definite plans yet." She replied, trying to avoid his gaze. "But I think I know what I have to do." She wished that they could drop this subject and pick up some more idle chitchat.

He studied her and the way she was avoiding his gaze. "You're gonna have an abortion, aren't you?"

His tone was accusatory, or angry. He didn't yell it; it was just stated very matter-of-factly. However Lucy knew that tone and heard the disapproval in his voice. "I haven't decided for sure yet."

"Yes you have." He replied, still studying her. The more he studied her, the more he figured her out. On the outside she wanted to have the abortion, but he knew her. She wouldn't be able to go through with it.

"Why do you care?" Lucy asked, getting angry at the way he was staring at her. "It's not like this baby's yours or anything."

"No, but…"

"I didn't ask for this baby. Hell, I don't even know who the father is. Why should I have this baby?" She was beyond angry now, but not at Carter. She was mad at herself for even thinking about getting an abortion. Growing up, she was raised by a mother who didn't believe in abortions. That's why Lucy was born; her mother had chosen to continue her daughter's life after Lucy's father ran off, leaving her alone and pregnant. Her mother was strong; she was able to raise Lucy by herself. Lucy wished she could do the same, but she wasn't so sure that she would be a very good mother. Not only did she lack the self-confidence to be a mother, but she lacked the money to be a mother too and wasn't sure how she was supposed to continue medical school with a child to provide for. It seemed like if she had this baby she was going to destroy the life she had now and if she had an abortion, well she wasn't sure that she would be able to deal with that either. She wanted to take the easy way out and just have the abortion. This morning, she had gone to a nearby church and prayed for God to send her a sign—something that would help her realize what she was supposed to do. Normally she wasn't much of a religious person and didn't go into many churches but she made an exception for this instance.

He thought about her question and couldn't give her an answer. "Only you can decide that Luce. I'm not accusing you of anything. I hope you know that."

She sat back down on the couch next to him and looked down at her lap. "I know…I just…It's too complicated. I don't want to talk about this anymore. Can't we talk about something else? Anything else?"

He reached over and put his arm around her shoulder, allowing her to place her head on his shoulder. "Sure. We'll talk about something else." He started thinking about what else they could talk about and a smile formed on his face. "Well you'll be happy to hear this piece of juicy gossip."

A slight smile graced her face. "Don't keep me in suspense! I could use a nice piece of juicy gossip right about now."

"I didn't take this shift with the sole purpose of avoiding a date with Abby. I also did it because Dave wanted some alone time with Shelby."

"I know that! You already told me that." Lucy interrupted.

"Yes I did, but I didn't tell you the reason why he wanted alone time with her. He's planning on asking her to marry him. I'm pretty sure he's planning on doing that tonight, although I could be wrong. He could be waiting a few more days."

Lucy sat up, removing her head from his shoulder. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "He's gonna propose?"

"Yeah." Carter nodded. "I told you that you'd happy to hear that."

"I'm more than happy! That's great news." Her mind was already starting to think about how she was going to help Shelby plan her wedding.

For the first time in weeks, Carter was able to see Lucy really smile and her eyes lit up with happiness. He could tell that she was already planning Shelby's wedding and just sat back, watching her. About twenty minutes later, she was still off in her own little world but he was still staring at her.

Chuni came into the lounge. "Hey, you two better come out here. We're about to start the party and cut the cake." She walked over to the cabinet and opened a drawer, taking everything out. After searching the rest of the cabinets, she turned to Carter and Lucy. "Have either of you seen a large knife? I brought one in to cut the cake with, but it's gone."

"I haven't seen it." Lucy replied.

"I haven't either." Carter informed her.

"That's odd…that's really odd. I could have sworn that I put it in this drawer. It's not there though." She shrugged it off and took out a regular knife. "I guess this will have to do instead." After picking up the cake, she left the lounge.

"We should probably get out there for the cake." Carter said, looking over at Lucy.

"Yeah." She replied, getting up from her spot on the couch. "But I'm going to go check on Sobricki first and make sure he's ok."

He followed her out the door. "Well hurry up before the cake is gone."

She turned around to face him. "Save me a piece?" She asked nicely.

He smiled. Loud music had started to fill the ER, so he had to yell his next statement so she would hear him. "You know I will!"

Lucy smiled and shook her head as she walked over to Sobricki's room. Approaching it, she noticed that the lights were off. Normally that would have peaked her curiosity but she knew that he had complained of a headache so she figured he was trying to rest. After entering the room, she was confused to find that he wasn't in his bed. She stood there next to his bed for a moment, wondering where he could have gone. His clothes were still here so he hadn't left. Did Psych come down for him while she was in the lounge? She turned to leave so that she could try to find him. Through the dim lights coming from the hallway, she saw him standing in front of the door with a large knife. "Oh crap." She whispered so softly that she had to wonder if she even said it out-loud. She quickly realized that he was holding Chuni's knife, but she had no idea how he had gotten a hold of it. "Um, Paul, why don't you put the knife down?"

"I don't think so." Paul replied angrily. "You've been poking me and prodding me all day. I won't let you do it anymore."

"I'm not here to hurt you. I'm trying to help you." Lucy told him, hoping that she would be able to get through to him. "But I need you to put the knife down. Please?"

"No!" He smirked, taking another step towards her. "Now you're gonna feel what it's like to have people poke you with things."

She backed up a little to get away from him. "I don't think that you really want to do this." She told him, hoping to get him to stop.

"Oh, I think I really do want to do this." He replied, taking another couple of steps towards her.

She walked back a couple of steps and found herself once again up against a wall. Memories of New Year's Eve flooded her mind and she had to work in order to control the tears that were threatening to fall. She knew that she had to get out of there and away from Sobricki before he killed her or her baby. Her baby. She had to find a way to protect her baby. "Please, don't do this."

"You didn't listen when I objected, so I'm not listening to your objections." Paul replied, walking another step. By now he was only a few feet away from her and there was no way that she could get away from him. "And if you scream, I'll only make it hurt more."

Carter was wondering what was keeping Lucy. She had been gone for about fifteen minutesso he picked up two pieces of cake and walked towards Sobricki's room. He saw the lights were out,and he thought it was odd. After opening the door, he dropped the plates of cake. "What the hell is going on in here?"

At the sound of Carter's voice, Lucy stopped kicking Paul and looked up. She gave him a nervous smile and bit her lip. She pointed at Paul, who was now unconscious and lying on the floor. "He started it."