Chapter 21:
About an hour later, Carter is going to Abby's apartment. He sees her apartment door open from the end of the hallway and Max in the hallway, making whimpering sounds. Carter realizes something is wrong, and starts to walk fast towards the open door. "Abby!" he yells. He looks down and sees Abby, covered in blood. He checks her pulse. It is faint. Carter starts cursing. He goes over to the phone to call 911. He knows that Kem must have done this, but she had taken off afterwards.
The ambulance comes to pick up Abby, who is barely clinging onto life. Carter convinces the paramedics to let him ride along with them.
"Trauma coming, eight minutes out." Frank tells the doctors at admit. "GSW," he says, filling them in. Susan, Pratt and some nurses go to get ready for the incoming trauma.
Eight minutes later, the ambulance pulls up to the ambulance bay. Susan runs up and opens the door. She is surprised to see Carter jump out, but is even more surprised to see Abby on the gurney, splattered with blood. "Abby?" she asks as her and some others rush her into a trauma room. Carter follows, trying to control his emotions. He tells the others her vitals. "What happened?" Susan asks as she starts working on Abby.
"Kem happened," Carter replies.
Half an hour later, Abby is intubated, and they are still working on her. They can't find where the bullet hit, and if they don't find out soon, she will have major organ damage.
Carter is talking with the police. He tells them that he thinks it was Kem who did this to Abby. The police make sure that they will find Kem. Carter goes back to the trauma room to see how Abby is doing. "300, clear," he hears before they shock her. "Okay, she's got a pulse," Susan says, "Let's send her up to the OR."
They send Abby up. "Is she gonna be okay?" Carter asks Susan.
"Well we found where the bullet hit," Susan replies.
"I asked if she was gonna be okay."
"Carter, I don't know. I wish I would say she is gonna be okay, but we won't know for a while." Susan says, leaving Carter there staring at the elevator doors that are opening up to send Abby up to the OR.
Carter sits behind the clear glass in the room next to the operating room Abby is in, getting operated on. He had been sitting there for almost an hour, just staring at the floor. He was unable to look up and see how her surgery was doing, but every ten minutes Elizabeth would go on the intercom and tell him everything was going well. He knew this was all his fault. If only… he didn't know what he could've done to prevent this.
"John, everything went well, and we are just stitching her up. She's gonna be fine," Elizabeth tells him in her English accent.
Carter looks up and sees Abby, getting stitched up. He goes and gives Elizabeth a hug and thanks her. "When do you think she will wake up?" he asks.
"Not long, about an hour or two," she tells him. Carter nods. A few minutes later, Abby is being wheeled to a room. Carter follows the nurses wheeling her into room 267. He sits down next to her and holds her hand until she wakes up.
"I'm sorry Abby," he starts to say, but his eyes start to well up with tears. Carter says nothing else until about an hour later, until Abby starts to wake up. "Abby?" he whispers.
She looks over to him. "John, what happened?"
"Why don't you tell me?"
"I don't… I don't remember much… I was going home to make dinner and deciding what to make, and I opened my door, and I heard a gunshot," Abby starts sobbing. "And then I was on the floor, and I could feel blood around me. And then I was kind of out of it, but I heard someone walk over me, and I looked up, and it… it… looked… like…"
"Kem? I know," Carter finishes up for Abby. She is sobbing now.
"John, what'd they do to me?"
"I'm not sure exactly what they did, but you had to get surgery."
"Oh. How much longer?"
"Till what?"
"Till I'm out of here." Carter smiles. He knows Abby is going to be okay, but he doesn't know if Kem will try to hurt her again. He hopes they catch her, and soon.