Disclaimer: I don't own the characters so don't sue me cause I'm using them. This is for entertainment purposes and I'm not making any money off of this story.
Author's Note: Third in a series though I'm not sure if anyone even likes these. But this will be the last one, I promise.
Summary: Sequel to "Idle Talks and Hangovers." A call at an inopportune time and rumors that can start at the drop of a hat, or other articles of clothing.
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"Carter, you're late." Kerry Weaver's voice grated in Carter's ears like nail on chalkboard.
"Sorry, I had to take care of a sick friend." He didn't even attempt to explain knowing that it was probably pointless to do so. Deb had woken up in the afternoon feeling worse that she had going to bed. After emptying her stomach, she promptly passed out again on her bed.
"Don't let it happen again." She said with a frown and shoved two charts into his hands. "Curtain two has a man with a slight problem with his bowel. Examine room three has a woman with a very nasty gash on her leg. Get working."
"Yes madam." John said as he took the charts and headed off to work. Just another day at county.
"Yo, Carter!" Dave Malucci called out as he jogged over to the young doctor's side. "Where have you been?"
"Late as usual. Weaver just gave me the jaw for being five minutes late for my shift due to traffic on the train." John rubbed his hand over his chin. Maybe he should have shaved before leaving Deb's apartment that morning. But he really didn't have time after having fallen asleep on her couch.
"Really?" Dave's brows went up in amusement. "Is that why you were late today? Cause there was too many people on the train?"
"Yeah, there were like three thousand people on there today." Carter grabbed a pair of plastic gloves from a dispenser on his way to curtain two. "If one more person pushed their elbow into my side one more time, I was going to do some bodily harm."
"Yeah, eh hum." Dave gave him a grin that spelled trouble before taking off for another section of the ER.
Carter gazed after him for a second before shaking his head at the man's bizarre behavior. "Mr. Karriton, what's happened today?"
"Hey Carter!" Benton called out as he followed gurney toward the examine one. "I could use a little help here!"
"Just one second, Mr. Karriton." Carter said with an apologetic look that the man seemed to take as a sign of his inability to say no to an emergency. Rushing in, he helped himself to a surgical gown and moved to the head. "What do we have?"
"It's going to be one of those days!" Benton growled as he looked at the unconscious man on the table. "Gang shooting at the high school. This was one of the victims. Bullet to the abdomen. No exit wounds, pressure down to…" the beeping machines interrupted the good doctor. "Damn it!"
"Someone get the paddles!" Carter called to one of the nurses as he started chest compressions.
"The other room has got it."
"Well go get it back!" Benton yelled as he press on the manual CPR bag. "We're losing him."
Carter grunted as he pressed down again. "It's going to be one of those days."
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"Nice save on the victim three and five, guys." Weaver acknowledged them with a nod of her head and headed out to the lobby for the waiting parents. "Get cleaned up."
Carter sighed and headed toward the lounge with Benton, Malucci and Kovec. Four hours in the ER and he felt like his head was going to explode. The gang shoot-out brought in more victims than they could handle. Several victims were minor enough to be transferred out to other hospitals. But being the closest, they got the heavy stuff.
"Another example of inefficient gun control." Benton muttered as he pealed out bloody gloves and tossed them into the wastebasket.
"Well at least we only lost two this time." Kovec said with his usual optimistic view of the world. "It could have been much worse."
"It shouldn't have happened at all." Benton pointed out.
"True." Kovec acknowledged with a sigh as he took a seat and leaned his head back. His back was killing him from the hour of hunched over victim three trying to keep the poor kid's guts from spilling out with only three clamps and his bare hands as Peter Benton stopped the wound caused by the bullet that nicked his heart. "These children and everything they have to face, it is a tragedy that we must see it."
"Yeah." Malucci leaned back against the chair and closed his eyes. "Nothing like a gang shooting to make me real glad that I don't got a kid that I've got to worry about having to grow up in an environment like that."
"Thanks, Malucci." Benton threw the guy a dirty look sharp enough to kill. "You're a real ray of sunshine today."
"You want some happiness? Talk to Carter."
"What the heck are you talking about?" Carter stirred the slightly sluggish coffee without any enthusiasm. He really hated the stuff they have in the lounge but he desperately needed a pick me up. "When did I become the cheer-up police?"
Kovec grinned with amusement as he and Benton traded looks. "Did you know that we were looking for Dr. Chen this morning to cover for Dr. Greene?"
"Really?" John frowned. "Did you reach her?"
"No." Benton smiled rather too sweetly. "Dave said that someone rather familiar voice answered the phone and he was sure if he got the right number."
"What are you talking about?"
"Rumor has it that you went to a party last night."
Carter frowned again. "Yeah, a fund raiser for children's cancer research."
"And?" Malucci prompted.
"And what?"
"Tell us that you didn't end up going home with a certain doctor that we all know." Malucci had a smile that made the chestier cat look pathetically weak.
Carter suddenly remember the hung up phone call at Chen's place. "Well shit, it was you this morning on the line wasn't it?"
"Insane Asylum?"
John sighed and was about to explain the circumstances that lead to his being at Deb's when the lounge door suddenly opened out. The girl herself stood here with her hand around her stainless steel coffee cup and eyes still blurry from the night before. While her attire was as neat as a pin, she herself looked like something the cat just dragged in after pulling it through mud and water first.
"Afternoon." Jing Mei muttered as she headed for her locker.
"Afternoon to you too sunshine." Malucci was having way too much fun at their expense. "Rough night?"
"Something like that." She put her bag in and pulled out her white coat. Rubbing her eyes open, she glanced at the three men in the room. "Do I want to know what you were talking about before I came in?" They all had a rather interesting looks on their faces.
"Not really." Carter answered.
"Okay." She nodded without any argument, not her usual style. Chen handed Carter the mug as she passed him on her way to the front desk, her eyes still have closed. "Here, it's a double espresso. Thought you would need it by now."
"Thanks." He took it gratefully and threw his slug coffee away with disgust.
"No problem. Figure I owe you after last night." She shrugged and went out.
Benton, Kovec, and Malucci's eyes all swung from the closed door to Carter. He held up his hand defensively. "It's not what you think!"
"Really?" Carter would have happily killed Malucci at this point.
"Yes, really." He sipped the wonderfully hot and sweet espresso and sighed. "She got drunk and had to be taken home. I wasn't too stable myself and spend the night…." He wasn't about to reveal that he spent the night in her bed. No one would have believed that he didn't touch her then. "On the couch. She woke up with a hung over the size of the Goodyear blimp so I stuck around to make sure she didn't drown when she took a shower or something."
"Did you take the shower with her?" Malucci asked then ducked as Carter threw a wad up napkin at him.
"Knock it off!" Carter sighed and headed out the door, ready to get back to work instead of being the butt of Malucci's dirty mind. The things he put up with around…
The usually hurried doctor didn't miss the speculative looks being passed by Randi and Nurse Junkins. In fact, there were more than just a few looks between passed around he main desk now as Deb made her way around the waiting crowd and grabbed charts from the counter. She, thank goodness, has yet to detect trouble.
John groaned as he thought off all the wonderful rumors that were no doubt being passed alone as he stood there helpless. "I'm going to kill Dave."