Hello everyone! It's been over a decade since I've written a Carby story and my love for them has returned at its full force this year. So, I decided to write this one-shot about them. This is set after "Now What" with a change in the canon. As I was writing this, I thought about making it a three-chapter story, but I'll see about it. I hope you enjoy! Reviews are appreciated.

John looked at the ring on his right hand. It has been about two months since he had come back from helping Luka in Africa. He went straight to Abby's apartment and, despite her anger, frustration and asking for her keys back, they managed to get past all of their problems and resentful feelings regarding each other. It wasn't easy though, and he forgave her for the whole embarrassing situation with Eric at his grandmother's funeral. Just like she forgave him too for the way he had left to Africa. And to think he almost made another mistake with her by going back there to search for Luka, who was missing.

"Hey." Susan said when she walked into the lounge. "So you finally proposed to her."
"Yeah." John looked up at her. "Took me a while, but I said I was going to do it right."
"So she said yes this time."
"Yes, she did."
"After a lot of misdirection and stubbornness, you two finally managed to get past all the hurting you were holding against each other."
"That's right." He rubbed his face with his palms. "She didn't let it go that easily though."
"Well, you can't really blame her, can you? I mean, you weren't even going to tell her you were leaving if she hadn't bumped into you."
"She told you that?"
"She did. And also that she begged you to stay then and you didn't listen to her."
"Yeah, I admit that wasn't a nice thing to do and I was angry and upset with her too. We're past that now, though, so there's no need to bring it back."
"I'm sorry."
"That's alright." John looked in his watch and then stood up. "Well, I'm out of here."
"Lucky. I have four more hours. Are you working tomorrow?"
"Nope. Abby and I are taking a small romantic trip to celebrate our first anniversary."
"Gosh, has it been that long already? It feels like yesterday."
"One year already." He smiled and closed his locker. "Well, I have a plane to catch. See you on Monday."
"Enjoy your trip and happy anniversary for you two."
"Thanks."

Susan grabbed her phone after he closed the door and called Abby. "Hey, it's me."
"Hey. Did he leave already?"
"Just did. I'm surprised you managed to keep it a secret for this whole week."
"Well, it helped that our shifts were in different times and we couldn't see each other these days."
"Are you going to tell him tonight?"
"I'm not sure. I might wait until we get to New York."
"Paris would be much more romantic, you know?"
"It's just a weekend trip, as we both have to work on Monday. He wanted to though. I talked him out of it."
"Where's your romanticism, Abby?"
"What's that?" Abby laughed. "I gotta go. I have to finish packing. Thanks, by the way."
"You're welcome. Have a good small vacation."
"Thank you."

.

John stopped by a flower shop on his way home. He wanted to surprise his fiancée with a beautiful bouquet of red roses and, hopefully, a romantic dinner in a closed off restaurant to start off their celebration weekend. After he got into his car and placed the bouquet on the passenger seat, he drove to their place, unable to stop glancing at the golden ring in his hand from time to time.

.

Abby found herself sitting in front of the toilet vase for the third time since she came home from work. She had witnessed several women patients in the ER feel extremely sick during the first trimester of their pregnancies and she thought she wouldn't be any of them, but she was wrong. It all started to change for her when she did her rounds in NICU for med school and spent about two weeks with babies. Then she began to secretly research the probability of giving her child the bipolar disorder she had in her DNA, even if she didn't have the disease.
"Crap, this nausea just won't go away. If this keeps up, I won't be able to surprise John."
The unmistakable sounds of keys being dropped in the bowl, footsteps and a paper bag of food were enough for Abby to know he was already home and his voice echoed seconds later, the exact same time she threw up again.
"Abby? Where are you?"
"I'm never going to leave this bathroom." She whispered to herself annoyed. "I'll be right there."
Abby stood up after she was completely sure she wasn't going to feel sick again and washed her mouth to get the bitter taste out. She fixed her messy blonde hair and then went to meet him in the living room.

"Hey." There was a large smile on his face when he saw her standing across him. "Are you ready to go? I thought we could eat something before we leave."
"That would be great." Abby swallowed hard to stop the nausea from coming up again at the sound of the word food. She changed the focus to flowers on the table. "What's that?"
"Oh that?" John walked towards it and grabbed the bouquet, getting close to his girlfriend right after. "I stopped by a flower shop and thought this would be a great present to you for our first anniversary together."
"They are beautiful." Abby smiled weakly. "But you should know I'm the worst flower care taker ever."
"Oh so you're not only bad at taking care of animals then? You can't take care of plants either."
"That's right."
"Well, next time I'll buy you a box of chocolate then."
"That's a much safer decision."
"So what do you want to eat?"
"Anything is fine to me. I'll let you pick this time."
"I'm craving for some Italian tonight, is that okay?"
"That sounds great."
"So how was your day?" Abby asked while she put some more clothes into the bag. "Did you have a tough shift?"
"Yeah, you can say that." John looked at her and then ruffled his hair roughly. "There was this guy who came with a heart attack and we couldn't save him."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Abby looked at him.
"Thanks." He stood up and walked closer to her, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing the back of her neck. "I'm just glad it's over and we'll be spending this weekend in New York. Are you?"
"Yes." She placed her hands over his arms and moved her hair away from behind her neck. "It's going to be fun. I think we both need it."
"We do." John let his chin rest on her shoulder. "Pizza is here."
"You ordered pizza? I thought you'd go for pasta or something."
"Yeah, cheese pizza. It's the most practical option since we have to go to the airport soon. I'll be right back."
As soon as Abby made sure he couldn't hear her, she rushed back to the bathroom to throw up again. This time, however, she couldn't hide it from him.
"How long have you been feeling nauseous?"
"Since lunch I think." She avoided looking at him to not get caught lying. "It's probably something I ate."
"I'm going to cancel our trip."
"No, I want us to go. We both need it."
"But if you're feeling sick, then we shouldn't really go."
"That's not an option." Abby finally looked up at him. "I just need to take some medicine and it will go away soon."
"You didn't take anything yet?"
"No, I thought it would be gone by now." She felt bad for lying to him, but told herself it would all be worth in the end. She hoped he wouldn't be angry at her in the end. "I will take something now though."
"Can you eat something before we go?"
"I think so, once I take a pill."
"Okay, I'll get the table ready."
"I'll be right there."

.

Abby stared at the window of the plane. She was glad it was a short flight and she hadn't felt any more nausea since she took a medicine. Still, she sat on the hall seat just in case she had to rush to the bathroom. She had to fight against the urge of placing her hand over her belly like most of pregnant women do. She reached for John's hand instead and intertwined her fingers with his. He was caught by surprise and looked at her.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything's fine. I just thought we could have a romantic moment."
"Oh yeah?" He raised his eyebrows and then smiled. "Well, then I think I'm gonna seek this opportunity and ask for a kiss."
"Enjoy my brief romanticism."
"You're damn right I will." John lifted her chin with his fingers and then leaned towards her, capturing her lips in a slow and long kiss.
Abby took a little while to open her eyes after he pulled away, still lingering his lips on hers and instinctively leaned in for one more, to which John responded for a short moment until he ran out of air.
"Wow, I could have you kissing me like this all the time."
She reached up for his ear and whispered very lowly. "Well, I can kiss you like that all night."
"I will remember that offer." He curled a lock of her hair around his finger and started playing with it. "I'm surprised you wanted to sit there this time. You love sitting by the window."
"Yeah, I figured it would be best if I stayed here this time in case the medicine lost its effect, you know?"
"Still feeling sick?"
"I'm much better now. I don't think there's anything in my stomach anymore."
"You should eat."
"I don't feel like it." She rested her head on his shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her, stroking her left arm softly. "I could use some sleep though."
"Go ahead. I'll wake you when we land." John kissed the top of her head tenderly.

.

The chaotic sound in the streets of New York could be heard from the 15th floor, at the top bedroom in the 5-star hotel John had booked for himself and Abby. It was almost close to midnight, but neither of them wanted to or felt tired enough to go to sleep.
"So what do you want to do now?" Abby asked from the balcony. "I know we ate before we left, but you're probably hungry again already."
"You're not?" John leaned against the doorframe that led outside.
"Not really."
"Has your nausea stopped?"
"It seems like it."
"Abby..." He leaned against the rail beside her. "Is there any chance you can be..."
"What?" She looked into his eyes and immediately knew what he meant. "Pregnant?"
"Yeah." His tone was so low it was barely inaudible, especially with a lot of noise.
"I don't think so. We have been very cautious about it so far. Besides, I don't want to possibly pass on the disease."
"Right." John pressed his lips together and nodded affirmatively.
"What?"
"Nothing. Come on, let's go somewhere to eat."

.

The clarity from the sun found its way through the curtains into the room and Abby squinted and covered her face with the white sheet, in vain. She immediately regretted sleeping on the right side of the bed. Beside her, she could hear John's peaceful breathing sounds. She turned around and saw his chest going up and down and wondered what he was dreaming about when a small smile came to his lips. She slowly slid closer to him and started kissing the bottom of his neck and shoulders.
"John. John."
"Hmmmm." He mumbled with his eyes still shut.
"Wake up."
"What time is it?"
"I think it's nine."
"We're not doing anything this morning," John opened his eyes and immediately cupped her face, kissing her tenderly. "So we might as well stay here until lunch."
"That sounds very tempting, trust me." Abby tightened the sheet around her body and sat down, looking at him. "But I was thinking maybe we could stroll around the Central Park."
"Can't we do that later today?" John sat down too and reached down her shoulder, in another attempt to arouse her and convince her to drop her plans.
"We could. And we could also stay in all afternoon. Something tells me you will want to."
"Alright." He gave in and threw his legs off the bed.

.

The trees in Central Park were completely blossomed with different shapes and colors of flowers. Abby was so nervous she didn't realize she was twisting the bottom of her shirt. She was thankful John didn't seem to notice it.
"So…" She spoke eventually. "While you were in Africa I helped treating a pregnant bipolar patient."
"Oh." John was caught by surprise and began to feel tense. "I assume that must have been a little hard for you. Treating a bipolar patient, I mean."
"A little." She nodded. "So I did some research on it."
"Go on." He couldn't help but feel at least a little hopeful where this was going and feared he would be disappointed about it in the end.
"And then I found out there's a low percentage of women who have either a mother or a father with the disease and have children with the disease."
"Okay." John had already connected the dots, but he still wanted her to say it out loud. "That's good news."
"True." Abby took a deep breath. "So before you showed up at my apartment in the middle of the night after coming back, I decided to stop taking my birth control pills."
At this point, she stopped walking and turned around to look at him; her hands holding his.
"What does that mean?"
"You really didn't figure out already?"
"Oh no, I have a clue. I'm just waiting for you to say it out loud."
"It means that…" Abby looked down at their hands laced together and then into his brown eyes. "I'm pregnant."
"I'm going to be a father." John didn't bother holding his grin and excitement and hugged her tight.
"Yes, you are. I'm carrying your baby."
"So you simply decided to become a mother?"
"I did. Actually, I found out a few of days ago. It was so hard to keep it a secret because of my nausea, but I wanted it to be a surprise for you. Though it didn't really work because you figured out first."
"It doesn't matter." John said and their eyes met again. "What matters is that we're gonna be parents and I couldn't have asked for a better person to be my child's mother other than you."
"You're gonna be an amazing father, I just know it."
He couldn't help but smile and let his hand rest on her belly. He still couldn't believe this was happening. "So how far are you?"
"I think about three months. Twelve weeks. But I'll know for sure next week, on my first appointment with the OB."
"Hey baby." John knelt down and pressed his right ear against her black shirt. "This is daddy. You probably can't hear me yet because you're too little, but I want you to know daddy loves you already. And so does mommy." He looked up at Abby again and stood up; his hand resting over her stomach again. "And daddy loves mommy too. So much."
"Likewise." She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Happy first anniversary, John."
"Happy first anniversary." He said it back as his hands slid to her hips.
John smiled at her before she stood on her toes and kissed him passionately. After a few minutes, they pulled away from each other and started walking out of the Central Park. During their way out, he grabbed a purple flower from a tree and put it on her ear. She couldn't help but smile at his gesture.
"Why do I think you're gonna buy a restaurant here to celebrate the news?"
"Oh you know me too well." He held her hand within his.