Summary: Carter's very bad day...goes from comically bad to catastrophically worse in 36 hours
Author's Note: I would never kill Carter. There is always a twist.
Disclaimer: Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Carter's Law
24 Hours Earlier Carter P.O.V +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The air was cool and crisp...much cooler than it should be for an August morning. He was covered in sweat as it ran in rivulets down his chest and the sinews of his back. He felt every jolt of the concrete beneath his feet as tiny volts of electricity seemed to surge through his gazelle like legs. His blue shorts no longer held fast to his grey soaked t-shirt as he continued his jog through the near empty Chicago streets.
He whisked his hand across his forehead to brush away a damp strand of his dark brown hair. Seeing his vehicle sitting in the distance he quickly glanced down at his watch. 6:12 was the last thing he saw before he found his footing gone and felt his knees crash into the pavement below him. His body flipped like a tumbling acrobat onto the pavement laying him flat on his back.
"Oh God..." he moaned as he felt a sharp pain in his side and throbbing from his legs.
John Carter stared at the near cloudless sky above him shaking his head.
He thought when he fell out of his bed this morning, tripped over his shoe, and falling face first onto the floor, his luck couldn't get much worse. He was beginning to think that maybe he should come with a warning sign painted across his ass..."Caution Klutz Ahead."
He slowly sat up and was astonished to find that even though there were a few cars passing by, no one, it seemed had seen his less than graceful somersault onto the hard pavement. He then caught sight of his leg. He'd busted it open pretty bad and was now bleeding profusely down his leg into his socks and onto the pavement below. For a moment he was fascinated by how much blood the seemingly minor injury bled until the pain finally reached his brain and he sucked in air through his clenched teeth. He was still a good 100 yards from his vehicle, so he decided to improvise. He took off his t-shirt and gingerly wrapped the cloth around his injured knee. Carter decided he must have broken the skin pretty deeply considering the amount of blood present. As soon as he tied the shirt, blood already began to pool through. He would have to get it cleaned up when he made it in to work in 30 minutes. There would be no time to stop back home now. He twisted his body over and was reminded of the stitch in his side again as he pushed himself to his feet.
Cautiously he half hobbled the remainder of the distance to his vehicle. As two female joggers trotted by him. Now that he was sweaty, half naked, bloody and bruised, here was his captive audience. The two cute brunettes stared at him as if he were a homeless man and continued upon their way.
"Yeah...I'm fine ladies...don't come in the ER with a broken nail anytime soon." he mumbled to himself.
Once he arrived at the hospital he grabbed an old sweatshirt out of his back seat and slipped it on. Grabbing his gym bag he got out of the jeep and was quickly reminded of his injury by a sharp pain that radiated up his thigh. Staring down at his watch, he only had 25 minutes to shower and get cleaned up before his shift with "Dr. Hardass"...aka. Benton began.
"Zip-A-dee-doo-dah" he said out loud.
Walking away from the counter Carter bumped into the edge of an open file drawer.
"Son of a b-" he screamed dropping the charts in his hand and as he went to retrieve it Carter grabbed his side and leaned over with a grunt.
"Sorry Carter." Frank bellowed closing the drawer as he slithered by.
"What's the matter with you?" Doug asked coming out of Curtain 3.
"Oh I fell this morning running. I tore my knee up pretty good, and I guess I pulled a muscle ...I think I'm getting old." Carter remarked, stroking the nearly nonexistent hair on his chin.
"Yeah right, what are you like 19 Carter? said Carol passing by.
"NO! I'm 25..." he mumbled.
Doug pounded his chest and spoke like a caveman. You young and strong like He-Man." as he growled.
"I feel tired and run over like 'dead man.'" Carter retorted. They exchanged a smile as Carter headed towards his next patient's room. He could hear an overly excited conversation going on between the nurse and at least two other people in the room. He took a deep breath and stared down at the chart...
"Leg laceration and rule out kidney infection...simple enough..." John Carter opened the door and only heard two voices and nothing more.
"Hi, I'm Dr..."
"Carter LOOK OUT!" Lydia screamed as something large and shiny came into Carter's view entirely too late for him to react. The object hit him with such force in his temple that a muffled "oomph' was the only thing that escaped his lips before he fell flat back onto the floor on his butt and then fell back on his head. After a few seconds he opened his eyes to the repeated calls of his name and could literally see spots dancing across Lydia's face.
"Dr. Carter are you okay?"
She was holding his head pressing the spot where his head was now throbbing. He swatted her hand away as he gingerly picked himself up from the floor. His charge in the bed had a mortified look on her face as Carter looked to the floor to see that the object that hit him was a metal bedpan.
"You're bleeding..."
Lydia followed him out of the room as he touched his head and came back with drops of blood. It didn't escape the nurse's attention that he was also limping.
"It just broke the skin. Why did that woman hit me with a bedpan...is it torture Dr. Carter day, because if it is I'll just go home and hide under the covers now..."
"No...no...she said she's 'not a baby and she s not peeing in the bed' and she threw the pan, you just happen to walk in at just the right...well the wrong time." she helped him to the desk.
Benton looked up from his charts and stared at Carter approaching the counter.
"What the hell happened to you?" He handed him a few 4x4's.
"Bedpan vs. my skull."
"Carter what are we going to do with you?" Doug asked sitting him down in a chair. He quickly cleaned the broken skin and began to apply a few steri strips to the damaged skin.
"I dunno...but I've only been here an hour and if the rest of my day is like this, I think I should have just stayed in bed."
"Well, this is going to leave a lovely bright purple bruise on your forehead, you might want to get something and cover it up."
Lydia touched Carter's cheek in a measure of comfort. "It can only get better Carter." She held he hand on his cheek longer as she felt something odd.
"Carter your skin feels kind of warm there already, are you sure you are okay?"
He licked parched lips and simply nodded.
"Did you lose consciousness Carter?"
"No, Dr. Benton, it just happened two seconds ago...well not literally but. . . "
" Why don't you work on a few charts for awhile, surely you can manage to keep from killing yourself if you stay back there."
"I'm fine, quit fussing over me" he spat angrily picking up his tie and pulling himself . The doctor and nurse watched him with great concern as he got up from the chair, grabbed a chart and headed into a patient room.
He was not surprised to find a honey voiced nurse quietly speaking to an elderly woman in the bed before him. As a set of stunning green eyes turned to meet him with a smile. A nearly sun kissed bronze skin beauty lit up the room with her smile as her dark hair framed the features of her face.
"Dr. Carter, just in time. I was just about to come and find you. Ms. Ellis, a young 72 years is complaining of chest pain, she's visiting from Detroit and neglected to bring her Nitroglycerin tablets. I assured her you were just the man to fix her right up." A wink directed at Carter brought a blush to his face as the doctor held fast to the patient s wrist.
Carter rattled off a series of questions, as the nurse turned and busied herself at the computer terminal next to the bed. She manipulated the keys with ease listening to the doctor's dictation all the while staring at his reflection in the monitor's glass.
She had only been at the Chicago hospital a mere 8 months, and 6 days when she saw him. A chance meeting at the diner and a transfer from the surgery floor to the ER was easily manipulated. Within two months an unfortunate death of his neighbor, a patient in the ER at the time, and an apartment next to his was available and was now hers.
Then it happened.
The moment.
He walked from the breakroom, their bodies collided. They fell in a tangled heap. He laughed, she laughed, and he said he'd never been tackled by any one more pleasant in his life, or something like that. From then on they were inseparable. To her it seemed they worked almost every shift together.
Every time he was at home, it seemed she was always preparing a meal for him, that man loved to eat for someone so lean and trim.
So lost in her thoughts she barely heard the orders he rattled off for his patients care, as he patted the elderly lady's hand.
"And don't you worry Mrs. Ellis...Ms. Aubrey will take good care of you." A warm smile greeted her as she stared longingly at his retreating frame.
She grabbed a clear bottle and started a nitro drip on the elderly woman, unsure of the complete dosage. It was unimportant. Ashley Aubrey hastened her pace to the desk to log into the computer.
She'd seen Mark enter his password enough times, all she had to do was make sure she was paired with Dr. Carter for the rest of the day.
"Carter?"
"Yup?" he asked...not glancing up from his chart.
"We are a doc short tonight, are you still looking to pick up some extra time?"
"Oh yeah, count me in."
"Benton's on." Doug said grinning.
"Yeah...I know..." he sighed heavily.
"I'm available too if you need another nurse." Ashley chimed in. Mark frowned and shook his head, glancing at the oblivious Carter, as Nurse Aubrey typed at the computer all the while her green eyes drinking in the sight of one John Truman Carter.
"Uhh...no, were good on nurses, thanks though." Mark smiled tugging on Carter's sleeve to get his attention as he pulled the handsome youngster from the desk.
"What's up Dr. Greene?"
"Carter are you okay, you sure you well enough to work a double?"
A forced smile lit up brown eyes as he placed hands on the elder doctor's shoulder. "I'm fine. If I didn't bust my ass a few times I wouldn't be me right?" he turned to walk away.
"Hey Carter...what do you think about Aubrey?"
"Hmm? She's a little flighty but seems determined, why?"
'You don't think she seems a little clingy towards ...oh I don't know YOU?"
"That's funny. She's just young, probably just gravitating towards me because we're close to the same age."
"She works the same shifts...she is always staring at you...she moved into your apartment building."
I dunno, I guess she's just determined." he tossed nonchalantly over his shoulder as he walked towards his next patient s room.
"Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of Casanova." Mark mumbled to himself.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Give it a chance, you will like it. Reviews and constructive crticism welcome.