Chapter Two

The ER was quite for a change.

'Obviously the residents of Chicago have decided to stay in. Or have their accidents nearer to Mercy for a change.' Doctor Susan Lewis thought as she had just finished with a middle aged woman in curtain three, who had broken her toe after falling over her son's skateboard. She leisurely walked over to admin and slumped over the desk sighing.

"What's the matter with you?" Carter asked rubbing someone's name off of the board

"Nothing!" Susan smiled at him. "Don't you think though that it is unusually quite for a Saturday night? Its almost eerie."

"Ooooh call in Mulder and Scully." Carter laughed. "This is just the calm before the storm, there's probably some big accident on the highway so they'll bring us patients in bulk!"

Susan playfully hit Carter across the arm and laughed. "I'm being serious! Something's wrong I just know it."

Carter knew Susan had a point, it was never usually this quite but he just dismissed it as being a blessing. There wasn't many a time where he could sit down for five minute during his shifts, but then this was what he had always wanted to do. Help people.

Just then Sam broke the silence. "Dr Carter, there's a domestic coming in. Gallant said something else too, but I didn't catch it. But he did say that he wanted you out there."

'Yippee' Carter though. He smiled at Sam acknowledging what she had just informed him. He grabbed onto Susan's arm and guided her outside to the ambulance bay.

"Calm before the storm. See." Carter said matter of factly to Susan.

"What is it?" Inquired Susan pulling on some gloves.

"A domestic." Carter said also pulling on some gloves.

"Ewwww I hate domestic's they're usually followed by the irate other half." Susan laughed.

They both stood there in the Chicago winter night, with the bitter wind hitting their faces, waiting for the ambulance to come around the corner. After five minutes it appeared, Gallant appeared opening the back of the ambulance doors,

Carter knew there was something wrong by the look on his face. Carter advanced towards the back of the ambulance and started to help Gallant pull out the gurney, and then he stopped and looked over at Susan. Susan rushed over, she knew something was wrong, as she reached the back of the ambulance her eyes began to well up.

"Is that Abby?" She whispered. Gallant silently nodded his head. Everything up until then seemed to be going in slow motion, then Susan immediately wiped away her tears and started to take charge. "Right lets get her in." Gallant and Antonio, one of the paramedics, lifted the gurney from the back of the ambulance; Susan to took it into the ER with the help of Antonio. Leaving Gallant and Carter outside.

"What happened?" Carter asked sitting in the back of the ambulance.

"I don't know man. I mean I didn't even know that it was Abby's apartment until I got there and saw Emily sitting on the couch" Gallant rested his head against the side of the ambulance door

Carter stood up with a jolt. "Oh my God! Emily! Where is she?" Gallant turned round and looked into the back of the ambulance. Carter turned round to follow his eyes, and sure enough he found the sleeping child. "Did Emily witness anything?"

"I don't know she hasn't said a word since we got into the ambulance, and she fell asleep just before we got here." Gallant stood up and went to get Emily from the back of the ambulance, but Carter stopped him and went in to get her himself.

Gently lifting Emily into his arms he got down from the ambulance

"I don't want a word of this to get out." Carter told Gallant. "Otherwise Emily will end up in foster care, until Abby is well. And I don't want that." Carter made his way into the ER leaving Gallant in the December night with just his thoughts.


It was eight O'clock and after a couple of hours Abby came out of the OR, she was out of danger but Doctor Elizabeth Corday, insisted keeping in the ICU for close observation. She had suffered a major head trauma. Richard had broken her eye socket, her rib and punctured her lung, which was what was causing the internal bleeding and had been slowly filling up her lung with blood.

Carter had taken Emily to the lounge, he lay her on the couch; and covered her with the jacket she had brought in for her Mother, before leaving and getting back to his work.

"Get in there now" Sam angrily said to her ten-year-old son. Alex was about to protest, but stopped when he saw the expression on his Mothers face. So he quickly slipped into the lounge. "We'll talk about this when we get home." Sam said as she shut the door behind him.

Alex slumped on the couch by the door opposite to where Emily was sleeping, he started mumbling to himself how unfair his life was. Emily awoke, rubbing her eyes. She could hear someone muttering over in the shadows, sitting up straight she got up off of the couch and walked over to the voice.

"What are you doing in here" Alex asked, jumping up from the couch.

"I'm waiting for my Mommy to get better. Why are you in here" Emily enquired.

"My Mom made me come in here, because I... Well my Mom's just mad at me." Alex sat back down. Emily sat down next to him, he didn't know what else to say to her. "So...ummm.. How old are you"

"I'm six, but I'm going to be seven December 19th." Emily grinned. She was just about to ask Alex how old he was when Carter walked in.

"Hey there Sleeping Beauty, your up" Carter scooped Emily up into his arms and threw her into the air. "Hey Alex what you doing in here"

"Mom made me come sit in here." Carter tossed Alex a pack of Gummi Bears.

Carter winked at Alex. "Don't tell your Mom mind! I don't want to be accused of raising your blood sugar" Alex smiled at Carter and took his candy over to the table. "Do you want to go and see Mommy" He asked Emily.

Emily shrugged her shoulders, she had seen so much bad things happen in her life she knew that when they went home it would just start all over again. Little girls were supposed to be 'Daddy's Little Princess', but Emily didn't have any relationship with her father. She barely spent anytime with him he had never shown her any love, and usually she felt really threatened by male company, but Carter was different. Carter was like a father to Emily, and she felt safe with him around, and she knew that her Mom liked having him around too. But children shouldn't fear their parents, they should be able to talk to them and confide in them. They should play games with them and read them stories before they go to bed. But Richard never did any of that, all he ever did was shout at Abby.

"So how about it?" Carter could see the pain in the young girls eye's, it was the same pain he had seen in Abby's eye's. Emily smiled at Carter and threw her arms around his neck.

"I love you Uncle John." She whispered in his ear.

"I love you too." Carter whispered back. Emily rested her head on his shoulder. Silently Carter made his way to Abby's room, he stopped at the door and looked in at her. She was sat up in bed, listening to Elizabeth telling her, her injuries nodding silently from time to time.

Her left eye was covered and she had an oxygen mask, but other than that most of the swelling had gone down. Abby saw Carter and beckoned for him to come in, opening the door Emily turned her head to look at her Mother cautiously. Abby gave a reassuring smile to her daughter, she wasn't sure what she had seen or heard but she hoped she hadn't seen that much. Emily wriggled down from Carter's arms and walked over to her Mothers bedside. Elizabeth lifted Emily up onto the bed.

"You can give Mummy a cuddle but you have to be very gentle because Mummy's still poorly." Elizabeth told the little girl, before leaving.

Emily gently hugged Abby and smiled up at her, before settling down beside her.

"Thank you." Abby said weakly to Carter.

"For what?" Carter asked.

"For everything; taking care of Emily, and not involving social services. Susan told me." Replied Abby.

"It's nothing. Do you want me to look after her tonight?"

Abby smiled at him. "Do you want to go and stay with Uncle John tonight Em?"

Emily's eyes lit up as she nodded her head.

"Well I'll give you two some time together, I'll be back in a couple of hours, when my shift ends." Carter said kissing Emily on the top of her head.

Abby had a plan forming in her head, but whether she could pull it off was another matter. She smiled over at him again just as he left the room.

Carter breathed a sigh of relief as he shut the door, everything seemed fine. Abby had, had it so hard all her life, things couldn't get any worse. They could only get better.

"How's Abby doing?" Susan asked as Carter walked through the bay. "I've been trying to get into see her but every time Weaver throws more patients my way."

"Yeah she seems to be doing good. But then you know Abby, she could be in a really bad way and she wouldn't complain." Carter sat down behind the reception desk and put his head in his hands sighing.

"Hey." Susan said draping her arm over his shoulders. "Abby's a fighter, you know that. She'll pull through."

"Yeah but what if she goes back to that animal? Y'know I had my suspicions the other month when Abby came in with a black eye a couple of months ago." Carter said

"She said she did that when she fell over Emily's toys." Susan replied.

"What and you believed that? Susan he's been knocking her around for years. God knows if he's ever laid a finger on Emily."

Susan looked astonished. "I knew he could get a little violent sometimes, but I never….I'm her best friend, I thought I would have at least noticed."