She's The One
I was her, she was me
We were one, we were free
And if there's somebody calling me on
She's the one.
If there's somebody calling me on
She's the one.
We were young, we were wrong
We were fine all along
And if there's somebody calling me on
She's the one
When you get to where you wanna go
And you know the things you wanna know
You're smiling
When you said what you wanna say
And you know the way you wanna play
You'll be so high you'll be flying
Though the sea will be strong
I know we'll carry on
'Cos if there's somebody calling me on
She's the one
If there's somebody calling me on
She's the one.
It was a long, slow night in the ER, and Carter was getting edgy. He glanced at the board - empty, the door - no activity there either, and checked his watch for the hundredth time. Her shift didn't start for another half-hour. They hadn't talked for long, but she had made it clear that she wanted this to be a surprise - to everyone except him and Kerry. Now, four days later, even Kat had noticed that something was up. Finally he had told her that the woman he had been in love with for six years was coming back to Chicago, 'but for heaven's sake don't mention it to anyone at the hospital'.
Finally, at seven forty-five, the emergency doors slid open and a dripping wet figure made its way to the admitting desk. Randi stopped drawing rude pictures on the board for long enough to look round the front. She didn't start fully paying attention until the person put down her umbrella and Mark Greene said, loudly enough for them to hear it upstairs in Labor and Delivery.
'Anna Del Amico? What brings you to our neck of the woods?'
'I'm back,' she replied, shaking herself.
'For good?' he asked incredulously.
'Absolutely. Say hello to your new paeds ER attending.'
The place erupted, and the noise brought Dr Corday out of an exam room where she had been taking a nap. When she saw what all the fuss was about, she joined the hugs, and when Anna finally emerged it was looking overwhelmed and a little glassy eyed. Carter stepped in.
'Dr Del Amico has a shift at eight, and I think it might be an idea if she got fixed up with a locker and a cup of coffee before then.'
'Sure,' Elizabeth replied mischievously. She, in company with all the staff who had been there back when Anna left, was now dying for Carter and Anna to hurry up and get together. Her husband saw the look on her face and hissed in her ear,
'Give them a chance. The poor girl's only been back five minutes and you've already got them married.'
'They're made for each other, Mark,' the surgeon remarked dreamily. 'Any fool can see that.'
'Oh, and you don't think that we are?'
'I have a bowel resection in fifteen minutes,' Elizabeth told him. 'Meet me in the suture room at eleven-thirty.'
'Okay, you're on… what about the patients?'
'It's too wet for people to get sick,' she replied with a meaningful glance at the board. 'And if anyone's out in this weather then they ought to be certified. No, I would say that we are very definitely in for a quiet night.'
Meanwhile, in the lounge, Carter and Anna were drinking coffee. He added sugar to his, saying, 'You even get your old locker back.'
'So I see. I would have thought someone would have taken it by now.'
'Yeah… my, um, med student had it, then another student used it for a while. She only graduated in June, so nobody's had it since then…' He trailed off.
Anna got the impression that he wanted to say more about 'my med student', something that was maybe connected with the very slight limp. She let it go. Whatever it was would keep until they had some privacy, and anyway, it wasn't like he was the only one with secrets.
Carter fell to wondering how he should tell her. He was still in love with her, that much he knew from the sparks of electricity she set off. But she hadn't wanted him five years ago; it was logical that she would want him even less when she found out about the drugs and… everything.
Feeling slightly awkward, she tried to keep the conversation professional. 'Any good paeds cases?'
'No patients,' he said, managing to muster a smile. 'Good, bad, paeds, whatever. People'd rather stay sick than come out in that. I know I would.'
'It's nice to be back in real weather again.'
'What, they don't have snow and rain in Philadelphia?'
'Sure.' She paused, as if considering whether to tell him something, and then just came out with it. 'But they don't in San Francisco. Look, Carter, we have to talk. I need to tell you something, and I know that a lot must have happened round here that you want to tell me. Five years is a hell of a lot of catching up.'
'Right,' he mumbled. He watched as Anna pulled her lab coat on and left the lounge, then curled up with Jerry Springer for company.
~~~~~~
It was almost two hours before they managed to get away - there were still no patients, but Anna kept on getting waylaid by people who remembered her. One of them was, surprisingly enough, the chief of staff. Finally she and Carter wound up in exam six.
'I've had so much caffeine I'm jumping,' she remarked, sprawling on a gurney. 'Romano even stopped to talk to me - I don't know whether to feel complimented or terrified.'
'I would go with terrified.' Sensing that she didn't want to or wasn't ready to discuss her problems, but not wanting to tell her about his, he filled her in on general hospital gossip.
'Doug left not long after you,' he told her. 'We were kind of under-paediatricianed for a few months. But Carol was pregnant and she had twins Thanksgiving 1999. Tess and Kate. They're adorable. After they asked me to be Tess's godfather I almost forgave her for kicking me out of the delivery room. She moved to Seattle and married Doug when they were still babies.'
'Doug Ross a father.' Anna giggled.
'He's not the only one. Mark and Elizabeth have a daughter. Ella. They weren't even together when you left. Oh yes, and Kerry's gay,' he added casually, knowing that this small bombshell would have the required effect.
Sure enough, she shot up as though she had sat on a scalpel. 'She's what?!!'
'Oh, yeah,' he said with a small smirk of satisfaction. 'She's with one of the psych attendings… has been for - must be coming up to three years now. We've got a Croatian attending, Luka Kovac. He just got engaged to an OB intern last week. One of my rivals from med school turned up, she's the emergency fellow. I got my trust fund back. Oh, and,' he suddenly remembered a more serious piece of news. They had all been around it for so long that they didn't even notice anymore. 'You remember Reese, right?'
'Peter Benton's son? How could I forget?'
'He's profoundly deaf.'
'Oh.' She wasn't sure what to say to that. 'What about you?'
'What about me? I told you, I got my trust fund back.'
'And I'm very happy for you, but come on, John. We were best friends. Something happened - the limp, the way you mentioned your med student back there.'
'I was stabbed,' he said, so quietly that she wasn't sure whether she had heard it right. 'Valentine's Day 2000. Me and my medical student, Lucy Knight. There was a schizophrenic patient… I wasn't listening to her and insisted that she go ahead with the LP even when it was clear that he hadn't had enough Ativan. He got hold of a butcher knife… Lucy died. I spent months blaming myself, and I got addicted to fentanyl. At least it started out that way, but it turned into fentanyl, demerol, morphine. Any schedule 2 narcotics I could get my hands on. They busted me. Abby - she's the OB intern I mentioned - caught me and split. She saved my life.' He didn't mention that Abby had been his sponsor. Her alcoholism wasn't a publicly known fact, and he didn't want to broadcast it. 'So yeah, I got sent to Atlanta. I bought into the rehab, I said all the right stuff, and I came home. Then, that Christmas, I relapsed and took two Vicodin. I've been clean now for three years, but - Anna, I'm a drug addict.'
'Three years, Carter, that's a huge achievement,' she pointed out. 'And I would love you anyway, you know that. Max - he never even tried to get clean.'
'Yeah, what about Max? How'd you end up in San Francisco?'
'Philly was a mistake, I knew it almost the moment I stepped off the plane. In Chicago, I had been independent for the first time in my life - no family, no Max, just me and my friends. And I loved it. My family came down on me… they thought that now I was home I could be their little girl again. Max just wanted to screw with my life, so I dumped him. Dated a few guys casually. He didn't like it.'
'Anna? What did he do to you?' Carter asked softly. 'You know that, whatever it was, I'll be there for you, right?'
She stared down at her fingertips in a kind of rigid concentration, and spoke in a fierce, choked-up voice.
'He raped me.'
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Woohoo! Um, the song is 'She's The One' by Robbie Williams. Keep reading and reviewing! Oh yeah, and special note to The Hysterical Rhino, if she's reading this - Latin is over forever.
I was her, she was me
We were one, we were free
And if there's somebody calling me on
She's the one.
If there's somebody calling me on
She's the one.
We were young, we were wrong
We were fine all along
And if there's somebody calling me on
She's the one
When you get to where you wanna go
And you know the things you wanna know
You're smiling
When you said what you wanna say
And you know the way you wanna play
You'll be so high you'll be flying
Though the sea will be strong
I know we'll carry on
'Cos if there's somebody calling me on
She's the one
If there's somebody calling me on
She's the one.
It was a long, slow night in the ER, and Carter was getting edgy. He glanced at the board - empty, the door - no activity there either, and checked his watch for the hundredth time. Her shift didn't start for another half-hour. They hadn't talked for long, but she had made it clear that she wanted this to be a surprise - to everyone except him and Kerry. Now, four days later, even Kat had noticed that something was up. Finally he had told her that the woman he had been in love with for six years was coming back to Chicago, 'but for heaven's sake don't mention it to anyone at the hospital'.
Finally, at seven forty-five, the emergency doors slid open and a dripping wet figure made its way to the admitting desk. Randi stopped drawing rude pictures on the board for long enough to look round the front. She didn't start fully paying attention until the person put down her umbrella and Mark Greene said, loudly enough for them to hear it upstairs in Labor and Delivery.
'Anna Del Amico? What brings you to our neck of the woods?'
'I'm back,' she replied, shaking herself.
'For good?' he asked incredulously.
'Absolutely. Say hello to your new paeds ER attending.'
The place erupted, and the noise brought Dr Corday out of an exam room where she had been taking a nap. When she saw what all the fuss was about, she joined the hugs, and when Anna finally emerged it was looking overwhelmed and a little glassy eyed. Carter stepped in.
'Dr Del Amico has a shift at eight, and I think it might be an idea if she got fixed up with a locker and a cup of coffee before then.'
'Sure,' Elizabeth replied mischievously. She, in company with all the staff who had been there back when Anna left, was now dying for Carter and Anna to hurry up and get together. Her husband saw the look on her face and hissed in her ear,
'Give them a chance. The poor girl's only been back five minutes and you've already got them married.'
'They're made for each other, Mark,' the surgeon remarked dreamily. 'Any fool can see that.'
'Oh, and you don't think that we are?'
'I have a bowel resection in fifteen minutes,' Elizabeth told him. 'Meet me in the suture room at eleven-thirty.'
'Okay, you're on… what about the patients?'
'It's too wet for people to get sick,' she replied with a meaningful glance at the board. 'And if anyone's out in this weather then they ought to be certified. No, I would say that we are very definitely in for a quiet night.'
Meanwhile, in the lounge, Carter and Anna were drinking coffee. He added sugar to his, saying, 'You even get your old locker back.'
'So I see. I would have thought someone would have taken it by now.'
'Yeah… my, um, med student had it, then another student used it for a while. She only graduated in June, so nobody's had it since then…' He trailed off.
Anna got the impression that he wanted to say more about 'my med student', something that was maybe connected with the very slight limp. She let it go. Whatever it was would keep until they had some privacy, and anyway, it wasn't like he was the only one with secrets.
Carter fell to wondering how he should tell her. He was still in love with her, that much he knew from the sparks of electricity she set off. But she hadn't wanted him five years ago; it was logical that she would want him even less when she found out about the drugs and… everything.
Feeling slightly awkward, she tried to keep the conversation professional. 'Any good paeds cases?'
'No patients,' he said, managing to muster a smile. 'Good, bad, paeds, whatever. People'd rather stay sick than come out in that. I know I would.'
'It's nice to be back in real weather again.'
'What, they don't have snow and rain in Philadelphia?'
'Sure.' She paused, as if considering whether to tell him something, and then just came out with it. 'But they don't in San Francisco. Look, Carter, we have to talk. I need to tell you something, and I know that a lot must have happened round here that you want to tell me. Five years is a hell of a lot of catching up.'
'Right,' he mumbled. He watched as Anna pulled her lab coat on and left the lounge, then curled up with Jerry Springer for company.
~~~~~~
It was almost two hours before they managed to get away - there were still no patients, but Anna kept on getting waylaid by people who remembered her. One of them was, surprisingly enough, the chief of staff. Finally she and Carter wound up in exam six.
'I've had so much caffeine I'm jumping,' she remarked, sprawling on a gurney. 'Romano even stopped to talk to me - I don't know whether to feel complimented or terrified.'
'I would go with terrified.' Sensing that she didn't want to or wasn't ready to discuss her problems, but not wanting to tell her about his, he filled her in on general hospital gossip.
'Doug left not long after you,' he told her. 'We were kind of under-paediatricianed for a few months. But Carol was pregnant and she had twins Thanksgiving 1999. Tess and Kate. They're adorable. After they asked me to be Tess's godfather I almost forgave her for kicking me out of the delivery room. She moved to Seattle and married Doug when they were still babies.'
'Doug Ross a father.' Anna giggled.
'He's not the only one. Mark and Elizabeth have a daughter. Ella. They weren't even together when you left. Oh yes, and Kerry's gay,' he added casually, knowing that this small bombshell would have the required effect.
Sure enough, she shot up as though she had sat on a scalpel. 'She's what?!!'
'Oh, yeah,' he said with a small smirk of satisfaction. 'She's with one of the psych attendings… has been for - must be coming up to three years now. We've got a Croatian attending, Luka Kovac. He just got engaged to an OB intern last week. One of my rivals from med school turned up, she's the emergency fellow. I got my trust fund back. Oh, and,' he suddenly remembered a more serious piece of news. They had all been around it for so long that they didn't even notice anymore. 'You remember Reese, right?'
'Peter Benton's son? How could I forget?'
'He's profoundly deaf.'
'Oh.' She wasn't sure what to say to that. 'What about you?'
'What about me? I told you, I got my trust fund back.'
'And I'm very happy for you, but come on, John. We were best friends. Something happened - the limp, the way you mentioned your med student back there.'
'I was stabbed,' he said, so quietly that she wasn't sure whether she had heard it right. 'Valentine's Day 2000. Me and my medical student, Lucy Knight. There was a schizophrenic patient… I wasn't listening to her and insisted that she go ahead with the LP even when it was clear that he hadn't had enough Ativan. He got hold of a butcher knife… Lucy died. I spent months blaming myself, and I got addicted to fentanyl. At least it started out that way, but it turned into fentanyl, demerol, morphine. Any schedule 2 narcotics I could get my hands on. They busted me. Abby - she's the OB intern I mentioned - caught me and split. She saved my life.' He didn't mention that Abby had been his sponsor. Her alcoholism wasn't a publicly known fact, and he didn't want to broadcast it. 'So yeah, I got sent to Atlanta. I bought into the rehab, I said all the right stuff, and I came home. Then, that Christmas, I relapsed and took two Vicodin. I've been clean now for three years, but - Anna, I'm a drug addict.'
'Three years, Carter, that's a huge achievement,' she pointed out. 'And I would love you anyway, you know that. Max - he never even tried to get clean.'
'Yeah, what about Max? How'd you end up in San Francisco?'
'Philly was a mistake, I knew it almost the moment I stepped off the plane. In Chicago, I had been independent for the first time in my life - no family, no Max, just me and my friends. And I loved it. My family came down on me… they thought that now I was home I could be their little girl again. Max just wanted to screw with my life, so I dumped him. Dated a few guys casually. He didn't like it.'
'Anna? What did he do to you?' Carter asked softly. 'You know that, whatever it was, I'll be there for you, right?'
She stared down at her fingertips in a kind of rigid concentration, and spoke in a fierce, choked-up voice.
'He raped me.'
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Woohoo! Um, the song is 'She's The One' by Robbie Williams. Keep reading and reviewing! Oh yeah, and special note to The Hysterical Rhino, if she's reading this - Latin is over forever.