Chapter 4

As Abby walked away from Carter, her mind was spinning. Everything that she

had once felt for him came rushing back to her mind. Abby was so occupied by

her thoughts that she didn't even recognize Luka standing right in front of her.

"Hey, you know you should be watching where you're going." Luka teased.

Abby smiled and looked up at him, "Hey, did our guy go up to surgery yet?"

"Yeah Dubenko just took him up, are you okay? You seem a little rattled."

"Oh no I'm…I'm fine." Abby reassured Luka, but really she was reassuring

herself.

"Have you seen Carter yet?" he questioned curiously.

"Um, actually yeah I just ran into him at admit, we might have coffee later on."

"Oh okay good, I haven't seen him yet. I'm sure I'll run into him."

Abby flashed him a smile and walked on. She only had a few more patients to

take care of before her shift was over, before she went to get coffee with Carter,

before she told the man she once loved that she had moved on with her life, that

she had moved on with Luka.

Carter looked at the familiar sights around him and knew that he would never be

able to leave this ER again. Africa had been such an experience one that he had

grown from considerably. And although Africa would always have a place in his

heart, he knew this was where he was supposed to be practicing medicine. His

shift was finally over and Carter made his way to the lounge. As Carter opened

the door, there stood Luka.

"Hey! How are you?" Luka greeted Carter warmly.

"I'm great, how are you? I hear you're Chief now? Congratulations."

"Yeah, everything's going really well. What about you? What brings you back to town?"

"Everything is good," Carter replied. "I just needed a little bit of break from Africa and everything, I figured I'd come back to Chicago and see some familiar faces, you know?"

"Absolutely," said Luka nodding his head. "You know you're always welcomed back here. Your shift already over?"

"Yeah I was actually about to meet up with Abby, she looked great earlier."

"Oh yeah," Luka said somewhat uneasily. "She mentioned meeting up with you earlier, I still have a while to go before I'm off. But you should go talk to her."

"Alright I'll see you later." Carter said as he walked out.

He couldn't help but wonder how close of friends Abby and Luka were now that he

wasn't there. It was something he knew he shouldn't care about; after all he had

been the one who left. But somehow now that he was back he couldn't help but

feel as though maybe he had made a mistake by leaving. And the thought of Abby

having moved on with her life was almost something he couldn't bear to think of.

Because truthfully Carter wanted to know that she still needs him, because without

her, he had been unable to move on himself.