"The on-call room? You couldn't make it home, huh," Lucy smiled at him, her blonde hair shining.
"Old habits die hard," John smiled. "It's good to see you."
"Really? You're almost never glad to see me."
"What can I say? I guess I've been longing for old friends lately. To be honest I was expecting to see you when they put me under for my transplant."
"You didn't need me then. You had Dr. Benton there with you."
"I think you can call him Peter now."
"Oh he'll never be Peter to me."
"Yeah, I guess I understand that."
"You call him Peter," she said.
"It took me years before I could do that. I had to get through med school, residency, drug addiction, and a lot of patients before I could call him Peter and even then it was just to say thank you and goodbye."
"I didn't get that far."
"No feeling sorry for yourself," he told her.
"You know, Dr. Weaver was right before. You did a good thing John."
"Thank you. How's Gallant?"
"He's good. He's happy for Neela and Ray and just really glad she finally got it."
"Yeah," John nodded. "She's where she's supposed to be."
"Yes she is and in case you were wondering, so are you. County is home, John. It's where you belong. You did good things in Africa but now is the time to do good things for the people you know and the city you know and personally, I don't think Rachel could have a better mentor than you."
"I don't know about that."
"You've learned a lot since me and since Neela."
"I hope so."
"Benton, Greene, and Lewis were all good teachers, right?"
"Right."
"So, take the best from each of them to help Rachel and the newest class of med students and interns and residents."
"You make it sound so easy."
"Because it is," she smiled again. "Take the things they taught you about medicine and patience and being there when someone needs to talk and use it to teach the next generations of doctors to use their skills but at the same time make sure that they remember that they're human and mistakes will happen. All they can do is learn from them and try to do better with the next patient that comes through the doors."
"Thanks."
She nodded, "You already started teaching, you know. I bet Julia never forgets to get a fetal monitor again."
"Do you know how much that reminded me of my first day?"
"I have a pretty good idea, yes. And hey, Rachel knows how to start an IV which is more than we could say for ourselves when we started."
"True," John nodded.
"You'll do a good job, John."
"I wish-"
"I wish, too," Lucy smiled. "But don't worry. I'm never far away."
"Yeah, I know."
"Time to wake up, Dr. Carter."
"What?"
"Dr. Carter? Carter? John!"
John's eyes opened and he looked to where the light was shining through the open door. He smiled at Chuny, "Something coming in?"
"Yeah. "
"Alright," Carter swung his legs over the side and followed Chuny down the hall. "What do we got?"
