We Used To Be Friends

A/N: Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Oh, this looks interesting…one bedroom apartment with one bath…it's close to the hospital…rent looks affordable…maybe I should go check it out." Lucy circled the ad in the newspaper and ate the last spoonful of her cereal. She had been scouring the newspaper the past couple of days looking for a new apartment and hadn't found anything that looked good and was in her price range. She was beginning to get frustrated. She was rinsing out her now-empty bowl of cereal when there was a knock on the door. She put the bowl down and wiped her hands on her jeans as she went to answer the door. "Hi." She greeted.

"Hey." Shelby greeted with a huge smile. "You busy?"

"No, not really." Lucy replied, letting her friend inside. It was now day two of her one-week suspension. She had told Shelby about Paul's attack and her suspension, but still hadn't told her about the rape or the resulting pregnancy. She wanted to, but something always held her back.

"I thought maybe we could go out to breakfast." Shelby suggested, hoping that her friend would accept her offer. Lately Lucy wasn't quite as closed off or unhappy as she had been. It gave her hope that maybe Lucy was going to be ok, but it still bothered her that Lucy wasn't confiding in her about her problems. She was usually always the first person Lucy ran to when she had a problem, but now Lucy seemed to be running to Carter. She wasn't a selfish person and she was glad that at least Lucy had someone she could talk to, but she couldn't help feeling hurt and a little left out.

"I just had breakfast." Lucy stated, going over to the coffee table and straightening up the magazines. "But there's some coffee left and I have cereal. You could always stay and we could talk about wedding plans."

Shelby smiled. "Ok." She followed Lucy into the kitchen and sat down at the small table as Lucy fixed her a bowl of her favorite cereal. She glanced over at the newspaper on the table and pulled it closer. "Are you looking for a new apartment?"

Lucy placed the bowl in front of Shelby and then turned to fix her a cup of coffee. "Maybe." She replied casually.

"Why?" Shelby asked. "I thought this arrangement with Carter was working out."

"It is." Lucy replied, placing the coffee in front of Shelby and sitting down across from her.

"Then why are you looking to move out?" Shelby questioned.

"I'm just exploring my options." Lucy replied. "Now, how about we talk about the wedding that we have to plan?"

Shelby knew that for some reason, Lucy didn't want to talk about this. Of course, Lucy never really wanted to talk to her about anything that was going on in her life anymore. She sighed. "I'll let you change the topic this time, but eventually I'll find out why you want to move out."

"Fair enough." Lucy relented. "So you aren't going to make me wear some hideous color dress, are you? 'Cause I refuse to wear to certain colors."

"I was thinking a dark blue of for your maid of honor dress. Is that ok?"

"That's fine." Lucy nodded. "When's the wedding going to be?"

"Well we don't want a really long engagement. I was thinking maybe late June or early July. What do you think?" Shelby asked.

Lucy hardly heard one word Shelby was saying. Her stomach was doing about a million flip-flops a minute. "Excuse me." She got up and practically sprinted to the bathroom. Barely making it to the bathroom in time, she immediately started throwing up. After a few minutes, she was finally done. She slowly got up and walked over to the sink to rinse out her mouth with mouthwash. In the mirror's reflection she saw Shelby standing in the doorway with her arms crossed around her chest. "I ate some bad food last night." She lied.

"Right." Shelby replied, not buying the obvious lie. "So what's the truth? What aren't you telling me?"

Lucy rinsed out her mouth and then walked past Shelby, sitting on the edge of her bed. "Nothing. I just had some bad food. That's all."

Shelby sat next to her friend. "You're pregnant, aren't you?" She asked quietly, putting the pieces of the puzzle together. "That's why you're getting sick and that's why you want to move out."

She knew she couldn't lie her way out of this one. Shelby knew her too well, and she might as well tell her now. "Yes. I'm pregnant."

"Who's the father?" Shelby asked, praying to God that somehow it was Carter.

Lucy stood up and started walking out of the room. "You know, I just remembered that I have some errands I need to do. Can we talk about this later?"

Shelby followed her out to the living room. "I think we should talk about this now."

"But I need to get going. I have a ton of things to do today. I'm really swamped." Lucy lied. She felt bad about trying to get rid of Shelby like this, but she didn't feel like explaining who the father of her child was right now.

"Why won't you tell me who the father is?" Shelby asked.

"Because I don't want to talk about this!" Lucy yelled.

"But Lucy…"

"Just leave me alone about this Shelby! I don't want to talk about it!" She yelled.

"Fine." Shelby knew that she wasn't going to get Lucy to talk to her right now. She sighed. "I guess I'll go and let you get your errands done then."

"Maybe we can have lunch tomorrow or something."

"Sure." Shelby nodded, closing the door after she left the apartment.

Carter found Abby alone in the lounge and figured that this was a good time to talk to her. "Hi."

"Hi." She smiled before going back to reading the newspaper.

He sat down across from her. "Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure." Abby replied, putting down the newspaper. She took one look at his face. "Is it something serious?"

"Yes." He replied. "Abby, I like you. I think you're a great woman and I have a lot of fun with you, but…"

She smiled and laughed, finishing his sentence for him. "But you want to break up?"

He looked at her confused by her smile and laugh. He thought she would be upset, but she almost looked relived. "Yeah. How did you know?"

"I've pretty much always known that you would eventually break up with me. That's why I never got too serious about you." She explained. "I always knew you would come to your senses and realize your feelings for Lucy."

"How do you know about my feelings for…I mean, what are you talking about?" He asked, pretending to play dumb.

"You love Lucy. Don't even try to deny it. I see it all over your face every time you look at her. I just can't figure out why Lucy can't see it." She shook her head.

He couldn't believe that he was that transparent to Abby. He started to wonder how many other people knew it too. "How many other people are aware of this?"

She smiled even wider. "Pretty much everyone except Lucy. Somehow she seems almost immune to it."

"You aren't going to tell her, are you?"

"No, of course not." She shook her head. "I'd never do that to you."

"Thanks." He released a sigh of relief. The last thing Lucy needed right now was to find out that he was deeply in love with her. She had enough to worry about right now. But one question remained in his mind. "So if you knew I was in love with Lucy, why did you agree to go out with me?"

Abby got up from her seat and touched his shoulder. "Because you're cute and I thought we could have some fun together—which we did. And now it's over."

"We can still be friends though, right?" Carter asked, amazed that she was taking this so well.

"Sure." She replied. "But I've got to get back to my patients. See you later."

"Yeah, later." Carter replied, still in disbelief that he was being so obvious about his love for Lucy.

"Hey, what's up?" Dave asked sitting in the seat that Abby had vacated only moments earlier.

"I just broke up with Abby."

"How did that go?" Dave asked.

"She wasn't really upset. She said she knew it was coming because of my feelings for Lucy." Carter explained. "And then she said that everyone in the ER knows about my feelings for Lucy. Is that true?"

Dave laughed. "Yeah. It's all in the way you look at her. I'm still amazed at the fact that she hasn't caught on yet. It's almost like she's living in a big bubble or something."

He was silent for a moment before deciding to change the subject. "So congratulations again about the engagement. I'm happy for you both. Shelby's a great person."

"Yeah she is." Dave agreed, getting a dreamy look on his face. After a couple of moments, he turned serious again. "Carter, look, I was wondering if maybe you'd like to be my best man?"

Carter smiled. "Sure. Thanks."

"Great." Dave smiled.

Lucy was sitting on the couch, flipping through the channels on the TV when the door opened and Carter appeared. "How was your day?" She asked.

"It was ok." Carter replied, sitting next to her on the couch. "And yours?"

"Being suspended from work is great. I highly recommend it." She replied sarcastically. "There's nothing good to watch on TV"

He chuckled. "Is this all that you have done today? Watch TV?"

She sheepishly looked down at the floor. "Maybe." She paused. "Shelby came over this morning and I talked to her for a while."

"I bet she's happy about the engagement."

"Yeah." Lucy replied.

"I broke up with Abby today."

"How did she take the news?" Lucy asked.

"She was actually fine about it. It was a nice, clean break." Carter explained.

"That's nice." She nodded. Despite herself, she couldn't help but feel happy that Carter had broken up with Abby.

"Dave has made me his best man." Carter smiled.

She smiled also. "You've always wanted to be someone's best man. I'm glad that you're finally living out your dream."

"Thanks." He replied. "So did you and Shelby start making wedding plans yet?"

"We started to, but she's not too thrilled with me right now."

"What happened?"

"I had a little bit of morning sickness while she was here and she figured out that I was pregnant. When she asked me who the father was I kinda yelled at her a little." She admitted. "I didn't mean to yell at her; I just didn't want to talk about it."

"You're gonna have to talk about it at some point." Carter reminded her. "People are naturally going to be curious about who the father is."

"I know." She replied, looking over at him. "But I just need some time to figure out a good lie."

"I have the perfect lie that will solve all of your problems." He grinned.

She chuckled, deciding to humor him this one time. She figured he would come up with the idea of saying that aliens abducted her and she ended up pregnant, or something far-fetched like that. "Oh yeah? Well ok then. What is this perfect lie that will magically solve all of my problems?"

He looked her straight in the eyes. "Let me be the father of your baby."