"Where the hell have you been?"

Abby winced, she'd only just walked into her apartment and was already being harassed by Susan. "Can I get some coffee before we do this? Or at least have time to take my coat off?" Susan folded her arms, scowled at her but didn't say anything else. She dropped her keys onto the table, threw her jacket onto the sofa and headed into the kitchen, Susan on her heels. "Ryan okay?" She was pleased to see Susan had made a pot of coffee and quickly poured herself a mug.

"Yeah, he's fine. I'm the one who's been worrying how to tell Dave you'd gone AWOL."

Abby moved through into Ryan's room, taking her drink with her, and found him in his playpen, trying to build a tower out of his blocks. She watched him as he attempted to balance a third brick on top of the others and failed, knocking the whole lot down. "Still not got the hang of that, have you?" She dropped to the floor beside him, leaned in and kissed his head.

"So are you gonna tell me where you've been all night?" Susan was leaning in the doorway, carrying her own cup and Abby guessed it probably wasn't her first cup of the day.

Abby piled up three blocks and then handed a fourth to Ryan. "I was with Carter."

"All night?"

"Yes, all night." This time Ryan skipped the building part and just went straight onto the demolition stage.

"You spent the night with Carter?" There was a trace of glee mixed in with the incredulous tone.

"Not spent the night spent the night. We were just talking."

"And?"

"And what?"

"What happens now?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing? You spent the night together and what, nothing's changed? You're still gonna marry Dave?"

"Yeah, that's the plan." Abby frowned as Ryan attempted to eat one of the blocks and took it off him, though he didn't give in easily, gripping it tighter, trying to keep hold of it. When she had wrestled it from him, he stared at her for a few seconds then simply picked up another brick and shoved that into his mouth instead. Abby gave up and turned back to Susan, muttering, "I swear this child's not normal."

"A personality trait he's probably inherited from you."

"Hey, you're not supposed to agree with me. Only I'm allowed to insult him." Abby climbed to her feet and headed towards the kitchen, searching in the cupboard for a box of cookies.

Susan followed her and refilled her coffee mug. "I just don't see why you went to see Carter if it wasn't gonna achieve anything."

"Yeah, I'm not really sure why I went there either but it done's now." Abby moved back into the bedroom, and offered Ryan a cookie, glad when he readily accepted it and dropped the block. She looked back to find Susan had re-taken her position in the doorway.

"It would've been nice if you'd have let me know you weren't coming back, instead of leaving me wondering if you'd been hit by a car again, or if you'd skipped town." Susan paused to take a drink. "Surprisingly, I wasn't looking forward to telling Dave you'd run out on him."

Abby was silent for a moment, then asked, "You think I'm doing the wrong thing, marrying Dave, don't you?"

"Now I never said that." Susan sat down on the floor, her back against the wall "Alright, I might have said that once or twice. Or a couple of dozen times."

"And you really believe it?"

"I thought I did, thought you were making this huge mistake and that it was my job to stop you. Now, I'm not sure anymore. I just wish I'd been a bit more supportive and I'm really really sorry I thought getting Carter to come back was a good idea. I told you that, right?"

"Yeah, you told me." Abby offered her a halfhearted smile. "But you couldn't have realised that sooner, maybe before you got Carter back here?"

"Apparently not." Susan sighed and then glanced at her watch. "Well, if we're going through with this, we might wanna start getting you ready or you're gonna be more than fashionably late."

"I can't do it."

"Get ready on time? Sure you can, we're not that far behind schedule."

"You made a schedule? Never mind. I meant I can't marry him. Not like this."

"Okay, are you testing me? Because I promise, I've no more plans to ruin today."

"It's just, I've been thinking about this lately. I know what Dave wants, know what Carter wants, and I know what's best for Ryan, I'm just not sure what I want."

"But you know you don't want to marry Dave?"

"No, it's not even that. I'm just not sure that I do."

"So, you don't want to marry him and yet you don't want to not marry him?"

"Does that make sense?"

"No, but then Abby logic rarely does to me." Susan rubbed her forehead and sighed. "Do you want to be with Carter?"

"I..."

"Right, you don't know. Well until you do know what you want, you might want to think about cancelling this wedding, or postponing it maybe."

"Yeah." Abby echoed Susan's sigh. "Don't suppose you want to do the honours of telling Dave, do you?" When she doesn't get an answer from Susan, she supplies one for her, "Yeah, didn't think so."


Dave shifted in his seat, glancing back over his shoulder at the guests slowly filling up the rows of chairs. Not surprisingly most of the guests were here for Abby, he's just glad that they didn't split the guests into friends of the groom or bride as his side would probably be empty. He turned back to the front of the room, wondering if every husband-to-be felt this nervous. He looked behind him just in time to see Carter stroll into the room, causing him to think maybe he had good reason to be nervous. Carter was hovering at the back so Dave stood up and walked towards him, intending to intercept him before he could make a scene.

Carter noticed him approaching and headed towards him, holding out a hand. "Dave, how's it going?"

"Hey Carter." Dave, reluctantly shook his hand, then shoved his own back into his pockets. They both stood there for a moment, Dave trying his best to think of something non-aggressive to say. Eventually, he simply asked, "Whatcha doing here?"

"Abby invited me."

"She did?" That threw him. "When?"

"Last night."

Dave tried working out the likelihood that Carter could have received a phonecall from Abby last night and made it cross country to get here in time. He dismissed the possibility, even allowing for Carter chartering a private jet. "You saw Abby last night." It wasn't a question but he received a nod in reply anyway. He clenched his right hand into a fist but managed to keep it in his pocket and not let it collide with Carter's face. "Guess someone told you the good news then? You stopped by to offer your congratulations?"

"Not exactly."

He almost wished Carter would just lie to him, that way he could continue to be pleasant and avoid a scene at his wedding ceremony. "So what are you wanting to do?"

"Abby came to me last night. She doesn't want this." Carter gestured around the room. "Doesn't want to marry you."

"She told you that, did she?"

"No, she didn't need to. If she wanted this, wanted you, she wouldn't have spent the night in my hotel room."

Spent the night, hotel room. Five words that guaranteed he would lose the last of his urge to play nice, and Carter had just made the mistake of saying them. He tried that counting to ten thing he'd heard about but only made it to three before he threw a punch.

Carter must have expected this reaction because he managed to stay on his feet. At least he did until Dave launched himself at Carter and tackled him to the floor. He found himself pulled off Carter before he can do more than land a couple of punches to the abdomen. He glared at Malik for attempting to restrain him but he guessed he didn't come across as very threatening because the nurse made no move to let him go. So instead he took to hurling abuse in Carter's general direction. "Son of a bitch. You left her! You left Ryan!" On the bright side, no one had made any move to help Carter to his feet. "You stay the hell away from them, you hear me? You're nothing to them anymore." He was trying to ignore that voice telling him otherwise.

"You know I'm right, Dave. You just proved that."

Dave struggled to break free of Malik's grip, but had to settle for taking satisfaction from watching Carter wipe blood from his lip. "You got off easy this time. You go anywhere near her again, next time you won't have the chance to walk away." He shrugs Malik off and started to walk away but before he could get far he noticed Abby standing just inside the entrance. Not surprisingly, she didn't look happy.