"Alright, alright. Hold on." Susan yelled as there was another knock at her door. Whoever it was appeared to have decided to try and punch a hole in it after getting no answer the first three or four times. Susan had come to the conclusion that they were not going to give up so easy and she dragged herself out of bed. Opening the door, she was surprised to find Abby and Ryan stood in the hallway.
"Hey." Susan opened the door fully to let Abby in. "What's with the early morning visit?"
"It's half past ten." Abby entered the room, leaving Ryan's pushchair by the door, she lifted him out.
Susan closed the door. "And to a doctor who worked a double yesterday, it's early."
"Sorry. What time did you finish?"
"Eight last night."
Abby raised an eyebrow.
"Ok, it's not early. But I deserve a lie-in, right?" Susan laughed. "Do you want coffee?"
"Yeah, thanks." Abby followed her into the kitchen. She gently placed Ryan down at the side of the table, and then sat down herself. "Ryan's started crawling."
Susan turned around, smiling. "That's great. Is that why you came over? To play the proud mom?" She went back to making the drink.
"No. I have something to tell you. I phoned last night but you must have still been at work."
Sensing this was something important, Susan lifted two mugs out of the cupboard and then joined Abby at the table. "You could have left a message on the machine."
"Yeah, but after last time, I figured that you'd come over and break the door down."
Susan placed her elbows on the table and supported her head in her hands. "What have you done now?"
"Dave asked me to marry him."
Susan burst out laughing.
"It's not funny." Abby frowned and folded her arms in indignation.
"I'm sorry. What did he say when you turned him down?" Susan managed to stop giggling. When Abby looked away and turned her attention to Ryan, Susan sighed. "Abby…" she started gently. "Tell me you said no."
Abby didn't answer.
"Abby…you can't marry the guy."
Abby looked up sharply. "Why not?"
"Abby, you know I'm your friend, right? So I say this with the best of intentions, you're insane. I mean really crazy insane."
Abby laughed softly. "Maybe I am. But this feels like the right thing to do."
"Right thing for you or for Ryan?"
Abby studied the floor. "I thought you were making coffee?"
"Abby's not in. She's at work." Dave shifted uneasily. For some reason Susan always made him nervous. He kept the apartment door open just a foot, leaving Susan stood in the hallway.
"I know. It's you I wanted to talk to." Susan pulled her coat around her as the draft in the corridor made her shiver. "Can I come in, or you gonna make me stand here the whole time?"
Dave opened the door and stood aside. Susan brushed past him. She didn't bother to go and sit down, choosing instead to hover just inside the apartment. "So, it's big news at County. The engagement."
"I thought it would be. Bet Abby's getting real pissed off with all the attention." Dave leant against the door, not even attempting to make her feel welcome.
"Yeah, she's hiding a lot. The roof, drug lockup, ambulance bay, pretty much anywhere she can. Oddly enough, Gallant's gotten really good at finding her." Susan stared at Dave coldly. "The only other person who knew where to look for her was Carter." She watched him, trying to judge his reaction. He just seemed to shrug it off.
"Yeah, Abby's not the kind of woman who likes people butting into her business." He informed her pointedly.
"Look, Dave, we're too old to be playing games here, so I'm just gonna say what I came here to say." She paused for a moment. "I don't want to see Abby get hurt. That's why I think you're making a huge mistake with this marriage idea. You're both doing this because of Ryan, not for yourselves."
Dave folded his arms. "I love Abby. And she loves me."
"Do you really love her? I know you care about her, and she cares about you, I believe that. But is it Abby you love, or playing dad to Ryan?"
Dave glared at her. "I love Abby. I won't hurt her."
"You've not even been going out that long."
"It doesn't matter." Dave opened the door. "I think you should go. Get out of our apartment."
Susan held up her arms in frustration. "Ok, I'll go. But you're making a mistake. If you really cared about Abby, you'd have walked away a long time ago. Let her sort things out with Carter. He is Ryan's dad."
"And you're an interfering bitch who has nothing better to do than try and run Abby's life. Carter left her, remember? And when you have a love life of your own then you'll be qualified to give advice to us."
Susan shook her head, and stepped out of the apartment, Dave slamming the door behind her.
"No, I don't work here. I am a doctor though. Dr Dave."
Susan glanced up from the chart she was currently filling in to see Dave entering the ER with a young blond. He stopped just inside the doors and she watched him lean in towards the woman as he flirted with her.
"And to think, he's getting married in a week."
Susan turned her attention to the other side of the admin desk, where Haleh and Chuny were also watching Dave.
"He know his rep. Can't stop chasing women. Abby's a fool. Especially if she thinks he's been faithful all this time they've been dating." Chuny shook her head.
"What, all of eight weeks?" Haleh sighed.
"Ten dollars says he'll be cheating on Abby within a month."
"Oh, honey, I don't give him that."
"Hey, don't we have patients to see?" The nurses were startled by the sudden appearance of Weaver. "Let's work on clearing the board here, shall we?"
The two nurses quickly disappeared towards triage.
"Susan?"
Susan was still intently watching Dave, and didn't hear Kerry calling her name. "Susan?" Kerry raised her voice now.
"Yeah?" She spun around.
"Where's Jerry?"
Susan shrugged, leaving Weaver to wander over to the lounge searching for the missing desk clerk.
Chuny stopped her escape from Weaver just long enough to pop into the drug lockup and warn Abby "You're fiancé's getting bored waiting for you."
Before Abby could ask what she was talking about, she had disappeared into an exam room. The first thing Abby noticed as she walked up the corridor was Dave and his new friend. The second was Susan spying on them from behind a chart. She made a mental note to tell Susan she really was no good at undercover work. At least she'd tell her when she was speaking to her again. Rolling her eyes, she approached Dave. "Dave, honey?"
He spun around harshly. "Abby, hi. I was just…this is Cindy. She was looking for a doctor, and I said I'd help her out."
"I bet you did."
Dave looked guilty.
"He's nice like that." Abby glared at Cindy. It had the desired effect and the woman made a quick exit.
Susan watched as Dave apologised profoundly to Abby. Chen joined her, leaning against the desk. "What's going on? Lover's tiff?"
"Looks like it?"
"Wedding off then?" As they watched, Abby kissed Dave and then headed back to the exam area. Dave watched her leave then headed upstairs towards day-care.
"Apparently not." Susan sighed.
"Why do you sound so disappointed by that?"
Susan signed off on the chart and dropped it in the rack. "I just have a really bad feeling about the whole thing."
"Yeah, but Abby and Dave don't."
Susan smiled at her deviously. "Maybe if you were to talk to Dave about it. Or to Abby even."
"Oh no. I'm not getting involved. They seem happy so why wreck that?" Chen shook her head and crossed over to the board. "Any good patients need seeing?"
"I'd try again myself, but Dave hates me and Abby won't talk to me." Susan had a sudden idea. "We could set Dave up."
Chen laughed in disbelief. "Excuse me?"
"You could even do it. Seduce Dave and make sure Abby finds out."
"Yeah and what do I get out of it when Abby beats me to death with a blunt object?"
"Abby wouldn't do that. Too messy. She'd strangle you with your own stethoscope." Susan grinned.
"Surprisingly, my answer's still no." Chen began searching through the rack to find a patient.
"Ok, fair enough." Susan seemed to reconsider her idea for a moment. "Do you think Weaver would do it?"
"Now that's a good plan." Chen gave up and settled for a suture removal. "Except for three reasons. One – Dave would be incredibly suspicious if Weaver suddenly came onto him. Two – Weaver would never sleep with Dave, even if she was straight. And most importantly, three – it's none of our business whether Abby marries Dave or not."
"But…"
"Susan, trust me on this. Let it go. If it is a bad idea then they'll find out eventually. Don't have Abby hating you for it."
Watching Chen walk over to curtain area three, Susan sighed in exasperation. She still planned to stop the wedding, but knew she couldn't do it on her own. Only one person would be likely to help her, and having run out of other ideas, she had no choice but to call him.
"Hello?" Carter had taken a while to answer the phone and Susan hoped she hadn't woken him, especially as she was about to make his day a whole lot worse.
"Carter, hey."
"Susan. What's up?"
"What makes you think anything's up?" She made her best attempt at trying to sound cheerful, but failed miserably. "Ok, but this is gonna come as a bit of a shock. Abby's getting married."
There was a brief silence and Susan just waited for the news to sink in.
"I think you might need to repeat that. I could've sworn you said Abby was getting married."
Susan moved over to her couch and sat down, guessing that this could take a while. "I told you it would be a shock."
"You did. Though you could have at least paused before making a statement like that."
He fell silent again.
"I take it Abby didn't tell you then."
"No. No letter this time."
She shifted the phone to her other ear. "She's marrying Malucci."
"Well, that's not a surprise." She heard him sigh. "Now, if you'd said she was marrying Romano, that would be a shock."
"If Abby was marrying Romano, I'd have had her committed."
He laughed slightly. "That's good to know."
Another silence descended on the line. Susan hesitated, then told him "Come back."
"Why?"
"Abby's marrying him for the wrong reasons. She's not in love with him." She shifted position on the couch, trying to get comfortable.
"Susan, I'm not a part of Abby's life anymore. As much as I hate to admit it, she's moved on. If Malucci makes her happy, then I'm not gonna stand in the way of that."
Susan stood up and began to pace the room. "Carter, listen to me. Abby's only marrying Dave so Ryan will have a dad. She's doing it for him, not herself. You should at least talk to her; give her the chance to choose you over Dave."
He took a deep breath. "When's the wedding?"
"In a week."
"You're so against this yet you wait til now to tell me?"
Susan shrugged, then realised that didn't really work over the phone. "I'm trying my best to play cupid here. It's not my fault if I'm not a very good strategist. I did have a great plan, but Chen wouldn't take part. So this is plan B."
"Which is, I come to Chicago, profess my undying love for Abby and we ride off into the sunset with Ryan. Why do I not see that working? Can we not go back to plan A with me in Chen's role?"
Susan smiled. "If you fancy having sex with Malucci."
"Right, plan B then." Carter laughed. "I hope you have a back up though."
"Not yet." Susan sat back down. "I'm not very good at stuff like this. I feel like Julia Roberts in 'My Best Friend's Wedding'."
"Except you're not in love with the groom." He paused. "Right?"
"Right!" Susan insisted. "Let's just hope things work out differently than they did in the film."
"So the only thing you get out of this, is to see me and Abby back together? I'm getting worried about this obsession of yours. I think if this fails you're gonna have to accept the fact that me and Abby are just not meant to be and get a life of your own." he teased.
"Ok, deal." Susan shook her head. "Though, that's not gonna happen because Abby is still in love with you. I'm sure of it."
"I hope so. Otherwise, you'll be paying for the plane ticket back to L.A."
Susan grinned. "Shut up, Carter and get over here. You've only got a week."
"I've only got a week? It's you who…"
She didn't give him chance to finish, hanging up on him. She lay down on the sofa and suddenly couldn't help wondering if she had just made a huge mistake.
