Chapter 24:
On his lunch break, Carter goes to get boxes for Abby's "packing party" as she put it. He comes into the ER carrying a pile of folded up cardboard.
"That's a lot of boxes," Abby remarks.
"You have a lot of stuff," Carter replies.
Abby and Carter's shifts end, and they carry the cardboard to Carter's Jeep. "You sure about this?" he asks her.
"We already have the boxes."
"I take that as a yes," he says as he gets into the Jeep to drive to Abby's place. For some reason Abby wanted to pack now, probably because she wanted to move as soon as possible. The ride there is quiet, and when they finally arrive, Abby jumps out of the car and runs to the back to get the boxes.
"Someone's excited." Carter remarks.
Abby smiles and grabs the boxes and starts skipping to the door. Carter follows her, laughing. "I should be excited," Abby responds. "We are celebrating being done in court and having a packing party." Carter shakes his head and grins as he follows Abby up to her apartment.
Abby pauses at the door. She doesn't seem as happy anymore. "You okay?" Carter asks her.
"Yeah, yeah, it's just…" Abby stutters as she opens the door and steps in. "I'm glad to finally be leaving this place. Every time I open the door it reminds me of…" she stops and takes a deep breath. Carter understands.
Abby goes to her room to start packing her clothes and stuff, and Carter volunteers to take Max out. A few minutes later, Carter comes in being dragged by Max. He takes Max off the leash and he goes bounding in towards Abby. "Max," Abby whines as he starts licking her face. Carter walks in to see if Abby needs any help with anything. "I guess you can start packing stuff from the bathroom closet and stuff, cause I don't need that stuff anytime soon," she tells him as he walks over and grabs some cardboard boxes and heads over to Abby's bathroom.
He opens up the bathroom closet and starts packing Abby's towels, sheets, and everything. It isn't until a little later that he finds it. He picks up the box and looks at it, it looks new. Just bought. He goes over to Abby's trash can to see if maybe one is in it, but the trash can is empty. He doesn't know what to do. Should he confront Abby about this? After a few minutes of just standing there, Abby walks in. He is still holding the box. Abby sees what he's holding, and tries to explain. "John-"
"Well, are you?" he asks.
"No, it was negative. I thought I was."
Carter places the box of pregnancy tests down. He doesn't know what to really say. "When?" he asks.
"About a week or two ago," Abby admits.
Carter sighs. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I don't know. I didn't think it was that important because I wasn't pregnant."
Carter looks at her. "Well it's important to me. I don't want to be left out of things like that. I want to be part of things."
Abby looks at him. She smiles. "Okay," she says and goes over to hug him. Carter hugs her back, and they stay like that for a while, until Abby lets go and goes back to her room to finish packing.
"Hey Abs,"
"Yea?"
"If you were pregnant, you would tell me, right?"
"Of course," she responds.
"Just checking," he says as he continues to pack stuff.
A week later…
The large moving truck filled with Abby's furniture and boxes pulls up to Carter's house. The mover's start to unload the boxes and furniture, while Abby directs them where to put everything. Once everything is out of the truck, the movers leave and Abby and Carter stare at the mass of boxes everywhere. "Now what?" Abby asks.
"We unpack."
"Why did I agree to move in with you again?"
"Cause you love me."
"Oh, yeah. I guess we should unpack now," she says not wanting to deny the inevitable.
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
"You know…" Carter starts to say.
"The boxes will still be here tomorrow," Abby says, finishing up Carter's sentence.
"Yeah."
"So we can just…" Abby begins.
"Unpack tomorrow?" Carter suggests.
"Yeah," Abby says, running upstairs. Carter follows, chasing after her. Abby runs faster, racing up the steps and runs into the bedroom, and they both collapse on the bed.
The next morning, Abby wakes up and goes downstairs to make breakfast. She sees all the boxes and wonders why they didn't start unpacking earlier, because it was going to take forever. She goes over to one of the boxes and opens it up, revealing a picture of her and Carter when they first started dating, from about five years ago. She picks it up and goes to the family room and places it above the fireplace. It fits there perfectly. A little while later, when Carter goes downstairs, he eyes the picture. He looks at it and notes at how perfect it looks there. He looks around the rest of the top of the fireplace, which has nothing else on it. Soon it will be filled with more pictures, pictures of Abby and me, and pictures of our family, pictures of our children, he thinks quietly as he walks out of the room, stealing one quick last glance at the photo.