Chapter 7:
She had taken the MICN call, grabbed the two senior doctors who were there and was working on pulling on a trauma gown before walking towards the sliding glass automatic doors of the ambulance bay.
There was a chill in the air still. That was the wind blowing for you. Chicago wasn't known as the windy city for no reason. Without a coat on, nothing but the yellow paper trauma gown, Abby could feel the wind nipping at her skin. What had just been soft flutters in her stomach were a lot harder now. It was as if the child was complaining of being cold itself.
"What are you doing out here? You should be inside where it is warm Abby."
Abby turned around hearing the voice, not knowing what it has said as she had been lost in her own thoughts. "What?"
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, Luka, I am fine." Abby replied. She looked at him, "really I'm okay. I can still do this."
This was one of those areas where they argued and completely disagreed with each other. Luka wanted her to take time off, Abby wanted to work as long as she could to keep from going stir crazy at home with nothing to do.
"I'm not saying you can't." Luka said.
"Could we not having this argument right now?" She asked.
"I'm not arguing." Instant defensive posture.
Abby just shook her head in disbelief. "Yes you are. We'll like always discuss this later."
Carter's laughter broke some of the tension. However it did catch Abby's well practiced dart throwing stare. Some things never lost there edge just became well honed.
Abby rocked back and forth on her hells only pausing again when she started to speak, "glad you found that so hilarious Carter." It was however a good sound to hear Carter's voice and to hear his laughter after his months of being gone.
Carter looked away for a brief moment. It was as if Abby had caught him between a rock and a hard place. It left him feeling awkward and both Abby and Luka picked up on that one. Abby heard Luka's laugh, while a nervous one, at least it was an attempt to put them all at ease.
"Thought the ETA was five minutes Abs."
"That's what Zadro told me." Abby shrugged her shoulders now. "Complaining about getting a small break already?"
"Yeah right," Luka replied. "Do you miss the heat?" Luka's eyes glanced over towards Carter again.
"About now I am." Carter replied as he tried desperately to relax around his friends. Luka he could be at ease with, a long solid friendship had developed. Carter and Abby had a bumpy past history. Sad thing was Abby and everyone else already knew about that history as well.
"John," Abby said her voice soft with him. "I'm getting hungry. Do you think that after this you'd be up for being my escort?"
Abby knew she was boxing him in. That was her entire goal after all. Getting Carter to say yes, clear the air and while they could never go back to where they had been at least get on a solid friendship level.
"Sure." The tone that she heard back was not a happy one and someone that was most definitely pissed off, to say the least extremely annoyed.
"Thanks John." Abby tired to keep her tone upbeat to match her emotional level but things were taking a shit and fast. She didn't know where else to take things and perhaps right now the best thing she could do was drop it. Although the little voice inside her head said that she shouldn't do that right now. She found herself wishing that the ambulance would come flying through the bay.
As the sirens finally broke the silence and the lights reflected off the walls Abby couldn't help but let that sigh escape from her. They could work together, Carter could work with Luka, he used to be able to work with Abby but that was when she had been a nurse, able to anticipate his moves moments before he made them. It made them a great ER team. Abby and Luka worked well together. He had been a good and patient teacher. Carter had been a good teacher too. Abby knew she shouldn't compare the two men like that.
"I got this." Carter headed for the back of the first rig. That was his first attempt at an escape. He gave one quick glance over his shoulder. The limp hard to hide but he hoped he was hiding it well. He wasn't as fast as he had been. Trying to keep up with the paramedics was a challenge but he was determined now to fall right back where he had been.
"Do you need a hand Carter?" It was Abby's voice that was coming to his ears right now.
"No I got it." Carter answered as he listened to the medics rattle off the bullet. He was glancing down at his patient as they rolled into that first, always cold, yellow trauma room. "On my count," Carter prepped to help slide the patient over onto the ER gurney. "One, two, three," they worked on sliding the man from one place to another. Carter started in on a rapid assessment of his patient. After the ABC's and the bleeding was under control, things were looking up for both doctor and patient, more so for the patient than for Carter.
Almost on autopilot now, not quiet like riding a bike but fine honed skills not as rusty as he feared. He knew how to heal, that much he remembered. He was used to having much less technology and having to rely on his gut feelings and the subtle differences between diseases. As the patient was taken upstairs by a 2nd year resident Carter was able to catch his breath and know to this point he'd done his job.
As the hours ticked by there was a steady flow into the ER. Not an overflow yet, but enough to keep a short wait and the doctors there jumping.
"Got time for a cup of coffee now?" Carter heard a familiar voice calling from behind him. He stopped what he'd been doing so that he could turn to the side.
"Oh hey," Carter said as his eyes focused up on Abby. That was the least that he could do to be respectful to someone who was an old of friend as Abby was. "I'm uh." There was no real excuse for him not to go with her. "Yeah I can go." There was a sigh as he said that even though he shouldn't have.
"Great." Carter watched Abby's reaction to his response, trying to gauge her. She was smiling and still appeared to be in a good mood. Carter looked up at the board before smiling back at Abby, "let's roll then shall we?"
Carter wasn't surprised that she wanted to spend some time around him, at the same time Carter was afraid of there the conversation might go. There were a few things that Carter just really didn't want to talk about anymore. But that didn't mean that Abby wouldn't want to talk about any of those subjects that she wouldn't ask about Kem or where she was at and not with Carter.
So it wasn't actually Abby he was afraid of, but the conversation revolving around his soon to be ex-wife. He wanted to focus on something a little more positive. Kem wasn't a positive topic of conversation. She was a sore spot in his life right now. He doubted that things would ever return to normal.
Abby slipped her arm inside Carter's "ready and starving." Simple reply, "thank you for coming with me because snacks are always better when there is some one there to share them with."
Carter wanted to keep the conversation going if he could. "It is the least that I could do for you. I'm surprised that you are not dying for Luka to be the one going with you."
"Oh it's not that I prefer one of you over the other. But I spend most of my time with Luka and I haven't seen you in a long time, almost to long."
Carter could sense that, that statement was almost an attempt to lead the conversation somewhere, "always nice to know."
"How was Africa?" She had to ask. There were could things that had come from Africa and then there was some really bad things that had come from those trips across the great big pond. Kem had been so happy when they had been in Paris as well as in Kisangani or even in Matenda. Chicago hadn't made her happy, she did well it seemed when they were apart not near each other.
"Africa was a different experience." Carter said softly looking down as they slipped into a booth. "I understand fully why you wouldn't want Luka to go especially now."
Abby shook her head now, "well there was more to it than that." She seemed to tense up a little bit more now.
"I see," Carter said, "too dangerous for your taste."
Abby didn't say anything. Carter became quieter now, that sensation that he'd said something wrong creeping into him. She just seemed much too uncomfortable now with him sitting there. "I'm sorry Abby." He looked down now feeling about two inches tall. "I didn't mean anything by that." He had a pretty good idea of what she had said and the reason behind it and he did feel pretty guilty now that he had said it.
"Don't worry about it Carter." Abby said shifting in the booth a little more. "What happened in the past says there."
Carter just nodded in agreement. There wasn't much else to add to that part of the conversation. How would you respond to something like that. "You look like you are really happy Abby."
"I am John." Abby's response was pretty soft right now, she just couldn't help it.
"That's good to Abby, really good. You of all the people I know deserve to be happy. You could say you almost glow." Carter tried to pull off a small smile for Abby. The just needed to not be so uptight with each other and boy they seemed to know it, but they just could seem to do it.
Silence fell between the two of at the table. Each of them drinking the respective drink that was in front of them and perhaps a little silence would be a good thing.
"So do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" Carter asked now showing genuine interest.
"Ah, no we don't know." Abby said with that same soft expression on her face. "One of the few true surprises left in life and I didn't want to ruin it."
"Understandable." Carter replied trying to keep the sadness from within his voice.
She reached across the table gently placing her hand upon his and gave him a very sympathetic smile. "I know seeing all of this has to be very difficult for you John." There was compassion in her voice, part of that could have been from being in the same situation, pregnant and very nervous Abby. But she had also been the night that Carter and Kem had lost the baby and she knew that Carter had to being going through a rough time right now seeing her in the position she was in and she was with Luka of all people. An ex-lover with a best friend she knew the relationship between the two men.
"Ah, I'm fine with it all." Carter said softer with his voice now but he was trying desperately to hide any emotion. He returned her gentle touch with one of his own. "Really all of this doesn't bother me."
Now Abby new that Carter was not necessarily lying to him. But it was true and clear that this did bother him. The only question remained was if she called him on it or not. She decided that at this time it was probably best just to let everything go. Some things were better just not to push. For Abby didn't really want to upset John anymore than he already seemed, "where are you staying in Chicago now that you are back in town again?"
"I am staying in the house on Deerborn street." Carter answered rather rapidly.
Abby didn't know if staying there was a good idea. That was the same house that he had Kem had been expecting the baby in. She hadn't ever taken the time to ask Carter how Kem was doing and she was the man's wife. Rather than say something a start a fight or bringing up anything that might be upsetting, she just simply nodded her answer to him in agreement. "Things haven't been the same since you left."
Carter leaned back in the booth throwing his hands up in the air and smiled that boyish charming smile of his. "Ah, what can I say, I'm just another fixture around here."
Abby softly laughed as he answered and she saw that real smile. That smile hadn't been seen by her in a very long, long time.