Chapter 2: Kerry Weaver's Office

Kerry bustled around her office, frantically preparing for a meeting she had in ten minutes. How could she be so behind? She had been preparing for days! Suddenly her door slammed open and her secretary ran in.

Out of breath, she shouted, "Dr. Weaver, we need your help with a jumper—"

"Nora, I don't have time for this. Tell the doctor to call psych. They should have called psych already anyways." Kerry continued to shuffle through her papers.

"It's Dr. Carter."

Kerry was getting tired of this. "Well, tell Dr. Carter to call psych." She picked up her coffee mug and started gulping the hot liquid.

"No, Dr. Weaver," Nora replied, "Dr. Carter is the jumper."

And the coffee cup went crashing down. Kerry didn't even notice the mess she had just made as she hobbled towards the door.

She snapped at Nora, "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

"The whole hospital knows. I thought you knew—"

"Jesus! If I knew do you think I'd still be in here!" She pushed past her secretary and continued toward the elevator. The trip up to the roof seemed to take forever. But when the doors finally opened it took all of her courage just to step off the lift. She looked around and saw everyone from Wendall to Abby, DeRaad to Luka, with their backs to her.

And there on the ledge made this whole nightmare real. Carter stood of the ledge looking straight out from the building. He looked too calm, considering what was happening. One leg of his was raised and frozen in place as if he was considering taking that final step of his life.

Kerry slowly made her way to Abby and gently touched the new doctor's arm, trying to show Abby to step back and let her try.

"John," said her soft voice, "John, it's Kerry. Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"

Carter still did not turn to face them as he said, "Why is everyone trying to stop me from doing this? It's what I want!"

"I don't believe you."

Finally Carter started to listen to what was being said to him. He turned his head and looked over his shoulder at Kerry. "What do you mean?"

"If you actually wanted to jump you would have already. We aren't stopping you. Nothing can­ stop you, Dr. Carter. All you need to do is take one last step—"

Behind her, Kerry heard the hushed shout of Abby, "Kerry what are you doing?"

But Kerry didn't acknowledge Abby. Instead she kept her attention on the man on the ledge. "John, you have two choices: either you can come down from up there and we will help you anyway you want us to….or you can jump, and then you don't have much to worry about."

Carter slowly turned his head back around to face away from his co-workers. Time seemed to stand still. His decision was made. Now he had to follow through with it.

And he took the step.