"Comes the Dawn"

Abby lifted her head from where it rested on her elbow folded over a text book and stack of medical journals. She looked up at the clock on the wall and groaned. She'd slept all night at the table again. She sat up and glanced over her notes. She shook her head. At least she had managed to finish her notes before falling asleep. She'd be able to actually write the paper tonight. She gathered everything into a file folder and stood up from the table and stretched wearily. She could hear Richard in the shower.

She went to the coffee maker on the counter and poured the remnants of the old pot down the drain. She hesitated a moment as she held the empty pot under the spigot in the sink. A wicked smile crossed her lips and she turned the hot water on full force to fill the pot. She counted to five and then grinned as a stream of violently angry curse words filtered through the bathroom door. That would teach him. He refused to help her study. Anything. It was infuriating. He'd said that the 'Great Gods of Medical Schools created study groups for a reason.' But she was second in her class overall...no thanks to him.

She filled the coffee maker with water and added a coffee ground filled filter to the basket, set it in the pot . She put the pot in it's place and flipped the switch. It would be a few minutes yet but her nose could already smell the aroma of a much needed fresh cup of coffee.

She was standing against the counter sipping a steaming cup when he finally came out of their room. He was dressed in a suit for work and had his brief case in hand. Neither of them said a word but his eyes met her's and he shook his head. He set the brief case on the table and snapped it open. He went through some of the papers and rearranged a couple of files. He sighed and snapped the brief case shut again.

"Sabotaging my shower was a pretty shitty thing to do, Abby," he said. Her eyes widened innocently.

"Did I do that?" Richard's eyes narrowed and he shook his head.

"Rather childish actually." She was silent as she took another sip of her coffee.

"Don't wait up for me..." he slipped his arms into an expensive coat and then picked up his briefcase.

"I'm not going to be home tonight anyway," she said. Richard stopped short and looked at her questionably. Abby shrugged. "I'm going to a meeting and then I'm scheduled for a night shift."

"Another meeting?" .

"Keeps me from drinking," she shrugged.

"And you want to do that...why?" Abby chuckled sarcastically.

"Being a drunk and going to med school do not walk hand in hand, Richard," she said. "You never thought I would make it through one semester and in two months I will be a third year. Why can't you be proud of that? Proud of...me?"

"Maybe because paying for med school...again...is keeping us in this dump," he said as he cast his eyes around the apartment. He picked up his brief case and then left. She waited until she knew he would be safely on his way to his office before she stepped into the shower. She stood still for a long moment and just let the hot water splash all over her before reaching for her shampoo bottle. It was empty. And so was his. Shit. Talk about childish.

The meeting was...another meeting. She had been attending regularly and listening for three years...since the weekend she'd poured the bottle down the drain. She didn't like to refer to that weekend as being the time of anything else. It was too painful. She tried sharing it once. She never went back to that meeting group again.

OB was slow for a change. She really wasn't needed. She decided to head home to work on her paper there rather than in the call room. They would page her if something came up.

The lights were on in the apartment when she opened the door. Richard's coat and brief case were thrown over the couch. She sighed and picked it up to hang in the closet. Then she noticed the red stilettos next to the couch. They weren't her's.

She looked up as Richard came out of their bedroom clad in his bathrobe. He was startled to see her there.

"Abby..." he breathed as their eyes met. Abby's eyes shifted to the laughing woman who was following him, wearing her bathrobe. For a long moment the three of them just looked at one another in silence. Finally Abby spoke.

"Well, she's a little prettier than the last one, Richard. How much is this one charging you?" Richard rolled his eyes and fell back against the door jamb. He glared at Abby with a forced grin and shook his head.

"What...did you say?" the leggy blonde behind him said. He scowled and then turned to push his...friend...back in the bedroom and closed the door behind them. Abby stood still for a longer minute and then slowly made her way to the kitchen. Methodically she filled the tea kettle and set it on the stove. She turned on the burner and took a mug from the cupboard and reached for her box of tea bags. They were on a shelf next to a bottle of Scotch. How interesting that he would think to put the liquor next to her tea bags. She hesitated for a long moment and then grabbed the box and slammed the cupboard door. She stayed there waiting for the water in the kettle to boil and for the sounds of Richard ushering the woman out of the door. She heard the apartment door open and shut and then open again. She knew he would be standing there when she turned around. She leaned back against the counter and folded her arms across her chest.

"So how many other whores have you screwed in our bed?" she asked.

"Abby..." he said slowly.

"All those times I would come home to clean sheets and pillow cases," she scoffed. "I thought you were just being a helpful husband."

"Well, maybe if you'd been a wife I wouldn't have needed anyone else." Her eyes widened. The look on his face said that he was immediately regretting that remark but he went on.

"You were the one that decided you had to go back to school, Abby. You're in class. You're taking shifts when you're not meeting with a study group. You go to your AA meetings all the time. You are chasing down your mother." His gray eyes narrowed accusingly. "You haven't exactly been around that much." He ducked as she threw the ceramic mug in her hand at his head. The mug crashed against the wall and hot tea splashed to the floor and dribbled down the wall paper. Richard backed away as Abby headed toward the door of the kitchen and him. She turned and disappeared down a hall and into the bathroom. She came out with clean sheets and her bathrobe. She dropped the sheets on to the couch and threw the bathrobe at him.

"You can get rid of that," she spit angrily. "Oh...unless you want to keep it for anyone else you have sleep over." She started shaking the sheets out and making a bed on the couch.

"What are you doing?" Richard sighed. Abby's brown eyes were flashing.

"I have no intention of sleeping in that bed with you ever again," she said. She stopped and looked at him. "I guess what I want is...out. I want a divorce."

"Abby..." he said quietly and tried to take her hand. "Don't make that kind of a decision right now. It's not that big of a deal." Abby stepped back and held her hands up in front of her to stop him.

"Eight years," he said quietly. "How can you say you want to quit something that has lasted eight years? We need to talk about this."

"Eight and a half, Richard," she said as her voice trailed off. "And as you pointed out, we stopped talking a long time ago." She went back to tucking the sheets in and spreading an afghan from the couch over them. He gazed at her sadly for a long moment and then went into the bedroom and closed the door. Abby watched him go out of the corner of her eye and then sat carefully on the couch. She didn't regret what she had said. She knew this wasn't the first woman he'd cheated with. Her mother in law as much as told her that three years ago. It was her choice to ignore it then. She had hoped it would get better. But he was right about her not being around. It was easier not to be. She didn't have to look at him and think about what she had done. The secret she carried. It was just...easier.