(Part 8)
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Here it is! The final chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Your opinions meant a lot. This is dedicated to Theresa and Lyns, whom I had very good fan fiction and ER conversations with, as well as everyone who took the time out of their day to read and review and to post on their sites. The ERCA lives! *~*~*~*~*~*~*
ONE YEAR LATER *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
He stood there. He stood at her grave, feeling how time had washed over him. Time was like a sea; it never ended, or for that matter, seem to have ever began. It was just something always there, leaving you to wonder at its mystery and how it kept on existing while life perishes into unfathomable nothingness. So he just stood there, merely existing.
All his life, he was surrounded by suffering. His parents were never around, and if they were, it was constant arguing. At times it even turned violent, which was something Bobby and him kept as one of many secrets. After Bobby became ill, all hell broke loose. He was certain that that was as worse as it could ever get, yet life never asked what he wanted. So once again suffering entered his life.
The stabbing happened so unexpectedly. It was a holiday after all. Everyone in the ER was enjoying themselves at the party, dancing and laughing and having a good time. Who could ever have thought that that would be the day a life was unfairly taken away, and another one forever scorned. He blamed himself for Lucy's death, and just needed a sense of peace. If only he had gotten to her in time. If only.
He succumbed to addictions. His depression became out of control, and he didn't know what else to do. He needed to escape the memories, the never- ending pain in his heart, and his life. And he did so, yet it didn't last. He was in denial, fooling himself into believing he was in control. Needless to say, he wasn't. The drugs and alcohol were. He was a fool. He realized that now, standing there at the grave.
Somehow, despite what life handed him, something incredible appeared into his life. A light at the end of the tunnel, one could say. Her name was Abby Lockhart. No one else understood him like she did. As they became close friends, he fell in love with her. He wanted to give her the world. He finally had something to live for.
Sadly, he had let petty things stand in the way of being with her. Even after Luka was no longer an issue, he refused to acknowledge it and instead rejected her and went on to have a relationship with Susan. He couldn't even imagine the pain he must have caused. She had suffering of her own. There was no doubt he blamed himself for her illness. After all, he was the one who made her feel that there was no friendship anymore. No wonder she didn't tell him. Maybe if he had been there for her when she needed him the most, none of this would have ever happened. Yet a part of him, no matter how small, knows there was nothing anyone could have done differently.
Just as suddenly they had come, the memories were gone. leaving him still standing at her grave. He felt better for some reason; as if in evaluating his past, he somehow put it to peace as well. A light touch on his arm startled him, and he turned to see who it was. There, standing alongside the grave with him, was his wife Abby. He gently smiled at her, remembering the lovely wedding reception and the beautiful baby boy they had conceived together. Johnathon Truman Carter, IV lay resting in her arms peacefully. It had been a long and difficult road the past year, but together they were overcoming it. Yet knowing that there was a chance she wouldn't make it had made them both realize how much they really meant to one another. Now the cancer was in remission, and all was going well.
As Abby kneeled down to place a bouquet of flowers at the grave, she glanced at the tombstone. It read: Lucille Knight Among the Angels
Abby put her arm around John's back consolingly and smiled. "What are you doing?"
John smiled back at her and lightly kissed her on the cheek. "Just saying goodbye to an old friend."
As they walked out of the cemetery together, they both had the sense of peace they have wanted for so long. "Just saying goodbye to an old friend."
THE END
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Here it is! The final chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Your opinions meant a lot. This is dedicated to Theresa and Lyns, whom I had very good fan fiction and ER conversations with, as well as everyone who took the time out of their day to read and review and to post on their sites. The ERCA lives! *~*~*~*~*~*~*
ONE YEAR LATER *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
He stood there. He stood at her grave, feeling how time had washed over him. Time was like a sea; it never ended, or for that matter, seem to have ever began. It was just something always there, leaving you to wonder at its mystery and how it kept on existing while life perishes into unfathomable nothingness. So he just stood there, merely existing.
All his life, he was surrounded by suffering. His parents were never around, and if they were, it was constant arguing. At times it even turned violent, which was something Bobby and him kept as one of many secrets. After Bobby became ill, all hell broke loose. He was certain that that was as worse as it could ever get, yet life never asked what he wanted. So once again suffering entered his life.
The stabbing happened so unexpectedly. It was a holiday after all. Everyone in the ER was enjoying themselves at the party, dancing and laughing and having a good time. Who could ever have thought that that would be the day a life was unfairly taken away, and another one forever scorned. He blamed himself for Lucy's death, and just needed a sense of peace. If only he had gotten to her in time. If only.
He succumbed to addictions. His depression became out of control, and he didn't know what else to do. He needed to escape the memories, the never- ending pain in his heart, and his life. And he did so, yet it didn't last. He was in denial, fooling himself into believing he was in control. Needless to say, he wasn't. The drugs and alcohol were. He was a fool. He realized that now, standing there at the grave.
Somehow, despite what life handed him, something incredible appeared into his life. A light at the end of the tunnel, one could say. Her name was Abby Lockhart. No one else understood him like she did. As they became close friends, he fell in love with her. He wanted to give her the world. He finally had something to live for.
Sadly, he had let petty things stand in the way of being with her. Even after Luka was no longer an issue, he refused to acknowledge it and instead rejected her and went on to have a relationship with Susan. He couldn't even imagine the pain he must have caused. She had suffering of her own. There was no doubt he blamed himself for her illness. After all, he was the one who made her feel that there was no friendship anymore. No wonder she didn't tell him. Maybe if he had been there for her when she needed him the most, none of this would have ever happened. Yet a part of him, no matter how small, knows there was nothing anyone could have done differently.
Just as suddenly they had come, the memories were gone. leaving him still standing at her grave. He felt better for some reason; as if in evaluating his past, he somehow put it to peace as well. A light touch on his arm startled him, and he turned to see who it was. There, standing alongside the grave with him, was his wife Abby. He gently smiled at her, remembering the lovely wedding reception and the beautiful baby boy they had conceived together. Johnathon Truman Carter, IV lay resting in her arms peacefully. It had been a long and difficult road the past year, but together they were overcoming it. Yet knowing that there was a chance she wouldn't make it had made them both realize how much they really meant to one another. Now the cancer was in remission, and all was going well.
As Abby kneeled down to place a bouquet of flowers at the grave, she glanced at the tombstone. It read: Lucille Knight Among the Angels
Abby put her arm around John's back consolingly and smiled. "What are you doing?"
John smiled back at her and lightly kissed her on the cheek. "Just saying goodbye to an old friend."
As they walked out of the cemetery together, they both had the sense of peace they have wanted for so long. "Just saying goodbye to an old friend."
THE END