Summary: 3 months into his new job, Carter is having trouble settling in. He makes a new friend and get a call from an old one.


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Chapter 4 - Getting To Know You

Walking quickly out of the doors of Mercy's ER, so he wouldn't get tagged onto an incoming trauma, Carter breathed a heavy sigh of relief that his shift was over. It wasn't particularly difficult or traumatising. It was just that working at Mercy was so dull. There was no excitement in the job, partly because they seemed to send virtually all the traumas to County, and mostly because there was no comradeship within the hospital. At County there were groups of friends, staff going into relationships with each other, and the whole ER team just seemed to be able to laugh and joke and relax together with ease. Not here.

Everyone seemed so detached at Mercy. They kept work and life apart, which wasn't a bad thing, but it just didn't sit right with Carter. The only sign of some friendship was that two doctors were dating. Speaking of which...

"Dr. Carter!" Dr. Ellen Davis called out. He turned and she jogged over to him. "Hi," she said, somewhat awkwardly.

"Hi Dr. Dav..."

"Ellen" she said quickly.

"Oh ok. Hi Ellen," he said while smiling.

"Are you off now?"

"Yeah I am. Just off to grab some coffee."

"Is it ok if I join you?"

Carter looked over at the ambulance bay and spotted Ellen's boyfriend giving him perhaps the most evil scowl he had ever seen. He leant in closer to Ellen and said quietly, "I don't think you boyfriend would approve," without taking his eyes of the man. He couldn't remember his name.

"Oh don't worry about him, he gets jealous easy," she replied and smiled again. "So where are you going?"

"Oh just a small diner I found last week," he said as they started to walk. He was very glad to find a place he could go to on his breaks. It was startlingly similar to Doc's, but it was annoyingly further away. They did do better coffee though.

They walked into the diner and found an empty booth to sit in. Carter ordered them two coffees and they sat in silence for a few moments.

Finally Ellen spoke up, "so... have you been settling in ok?"

Carter put down his cup, "yeah pretty good I guess."

"But..."

"Well this place doesn't seem to be very lively compared to County."

"Well give it time, you grow to love it."

"Oh don't worry I'm sure I'll fit in," he said finishing his coffee, he slowly rose up to leave, "well I'd better..."

"Why don't you have another?" Ellen asked. He sat back down again and looked at her. He thought for a few moments, "yeah sure ok," he saw her smile at this.

"This one's on me."

They spent the next hour in the diner drinking coffee and talking. Carter was actually relived that someone had gone out of their way to be nice to him and get to know him a little better. As he finished his fourth cup he stood up quickly, "well this was great but I have to be getting home now."

"We should do it again sometime."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea," he thought it best to be honest.

Ellen looked slightly hurt at this, "why?"

"Well I don't want to get in anybody's bad books. It would be nice to have a friend here because everyone seems to be so distant from each other. But I wouldn't want to get in the way of you and your boyfriend." He thought about how this echoed his situation with Abby.

After looking upset, Ellen slowly nodded and smiled. "Well I suppose you're right. Don't worry I'll talk to him."

Carter smiled, "well we should do this again tomorrow then. As long as I won't get jumped or anything."

Ellen laughed, "oh don't you worry about Clive. He wouldn't hurt a fly."

"Well thanks again."

"Yeah you too. Goodnight Dr. Carter."

"Goodnight Dr. Davis." Carter walked out of the diner and sighed. He took another look back to see Ellen looking down at the table while the waitress billed her for the last two cups of coffee. There was the one friend he needed but it was so obvious that she wanted more than that. In some ways she was perfect for him but he just couldn't find himself attracted to her. He wasn't over Abby. The truth hit him hard. The thing he had tried to escape was following him wherever he went. There was nothing he could do about it.

Driving back to his apartment he felt fatigue swoop over him. He thought it best to just get home and go straight to bed. He hadn't moved because he saw no point. His apartment was a little further away from Mercy than it was to County, but moving such a short distance would over-complicate things.

He stepped slowly through the door and threw his keys onto the table. Grabbing a bottle of milk out of the fridge he sat in the dark and rubbed his eyes tentatively. "Look at what you've become John," he said to himself.

Just as he was about to climb into bed the phone rang. "Who the hell could that be!" he cursed. It wasn't late at all but he always got annoyed if someone phoned him just as he was turning in. He picked up the phone and, purposely, sighed loudly. "Hello?"

"Hello John," a woman's voice replied.

"Who is this?"

"I'm surprised you've forgotten us so easily," the voice said with a dry chuckle.

"Deb? Deb! Wow it's so good to hear from you. How have you been," he was delighted that *they* hadn't forgotten *him* so easily.

"Well I'd just thought I'd call to see how you were," she said, "how's life at Mercy?"

"Well..."

"Uh-Oh," Deb knew him too well.

"Yeah," Carter laughed, "it has its shortcomings but I'm sure I'll grow to love it."

"Compared to County?"

"It's quiet but that's not a good thing."

"Yeah we always get trauma's that Mercy has diverted. We were worried that you were being under-worked."

"We?" Carter said hopefully.

"Yeah, all of us. Everyone still talks about you and we all miss you."

"Wow, thanks Deb that's good to hear. So did you make chief resident?"

"Yep, but to tell you the truth it's a lot of hard work."

"Having trouble coping huh?" Carter said, he couldn't resist a dig.

"That's not what I said!" Deb retorted. "I'm handling it."

"Liar," Carter said and he heard Deb laugh. "Hey listen how would you like to meet up tomorrow night. I get off at seven so we could go for some coffee or something. You know, catch up on old times."

"Yeah that would be great. I'm working the night shift tomorrow so we'll have to go to Doc's. Is that ok?"

"Yeah that's fine. I haven't been to Doc's since I left."

"Ok I'll meet you there. Say half seven?"

"That's fine. Ok then I'll see you tomorrow?"

"I'll look forward to it."

"Goodnight John."

"Night Deb. Thanks for calling." He heard the familiar click and put the phone down. Climbing into bed he thought about how great it would be to see Deb again. Maybe he could go into the hospital to say hello. If Deb was telling the truth they would be happy to see him. Well most of them anyway.