Lucy sat down, holding a mug of coffee in her hand, and her daughter in the other. She took a sip from her mug of coffee and set her daughter down on the sofa in the Lounge. She set her mug down when Carter came in.

"Oh, thank God! Carter, watch Annabelle for a sec, would you? I have to run to the store to get something for Ralina. I'll be back soon," she remarked, grabbing her purse.

"Sure?" he replied.

"You're a lifesaver. Thanks," she remarked, kissing him quickly.

He played with his daughter in the ER lounge when he needed to do a trauma surgery. He called Carol to watch his daughter for a while. She said yes. She watched as her two twin girls played with Annabelle.

"I'm back, Carol! Where's Carter?" asked Lucy, bursting through the ER automatic sliding doors.

"He went in for a trauma surgery a little while ago but Annabelle and Ralina are right here. No need to worry. They were with me," she boasted.

"Thanks, Carol. I don't know what I'd do without you."

She fed Ralina and she made sure they were content and then she drove them home when her shift was over. She put them in for a nap and then she prepared lasagna for dinner. She heard the click of the door and turned to see Carter.

"Hey. Shift over?" she greeted, kissing him.

"Yeah. I'm so tired", he started, before stopping to sniff the air. "Hey! You're cooking lasagna. Let me have some food, please."

"Yeah, sure," she laughed. They went into the kitchen and ate, chatting quietly and reminiscing on old memories.

They went to bed that night, when Lucy awakened at two in the morning from Ralina's crying. Lucy sighed and yawned and walked over to Ralina's room to see that Carter was holding her and trying to lull her back to sleep. She watched stealthily and when he succeeded, he walked outside to see Lucy.

"Wow. I didn't know I had an audience. If I did, I would've done it better," he joked.

"That was a pretty good show all on its own, Carter. C'mon. Go back to sleep," she yawned, stretching.

"I think I'm going to put on a pot of coffee. I'm not tired anymore."

"Okay. But I'm going back to sleep and don't even feel like waking me at five in the morning or face the consequences," she warned.

"Right. Luce, explain to me why you want to sleep for an extra four hours. It's not going to make that much of a difference."

"Well, Kerry says that if I'm on time today, she might actually change my shift so that I could go to work on the afternoons."

"Oh. Cool. Good night."

"Good night," she mumbled.

He made some coffee and then sat in the living room and turned on the computer. He thought back to how Lucy had convinced him to buy this thing. They were both too busy to have time to use it, but she said that when Ralina and Annabelle grew up, they could use it. He sighed as he double- clicked on the AOL icon. He signed on (for the second time in a year; the first time was mandatory) and checked the two-hundred or some e-mails he had in his mailbox. He deleted all the spam e-mails (and e-mails Lucy would kill him for looking at) and read some of the e-mails he had received from hospital staff. Heck, the whole hospital was probably on AOL's member list. He talked to some people before signing off.

He made some breakfast and waited for Lucy to get up. He poured two mugs of coffee and placed down two plates of scrambled eggs. By the time she came downstairs, he was done with his breakfast and was reading the paper.

"Morning, Carter. Remember, feed the girls when they wake up and then bring them to the hospital and I'll take them home and you can do your job. Bye, honey."

He kissed her good-bye and read the paper. When he was in the middle of a paragraph, he heard the faint whimpering of his daughters, he went upstairs to check on them and he saw that Ralina was still asleep but Annabelle was awake.

"Daddy!" she cried, hugging him.

"Hey there, sweetheart. Make your bed and we can go down and eat breakfast and watch Sesame Street, ok?" he offered.

She nodded and made her bed. It was a bit messy, but Carter smoothed it out for her and carried her downstairs and helped her make a bowl of cereal and told her that if she didn't spill anything, she could eat in the living room and watch Sesame Street. When Carter heard something upstairs, he ran upstairs and fed Ralina and changed her. His pager started beeping and he called the hospital.

"Kerry, calm down. I will not be late. Listen, I just have to get Annabelle and Ralina ready for Lucy and then I'll be there. Yes. I won't be late. Kerry, stop. You can trust me. I will definitely be there. Bye."

He helped get Ralina in her car seat and Annabelle set up in her seat belt in the back of his car. He drove off toward the hospital and when he got there, he saw Lucy leave. He got out and handed her his two daughters. She took them gratefully and he parked and ran into the hospital.

"I'm here," he replied.

"Nice of you to be here. Mark wants to see you in the Lounge."

Carter ran into the Lounge where he poured himself a mug of coffee and changed. There, Mark was sitting, sipping his coffee.

"Carter, scrub in and hurry up, please," Mark ordered, getting up and leaving.

He nodded and he left for the trauma surgery. As soon as he was done with the surgery, he retired to the Lounge.

"Am I done for the day, Mark?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Thanks."

"Sure."

Carter ran outside and jumped in his car and drove home and got stuck in the normal Chicago traffic. After about half an hour in traffic, he called back to the house.

"Hello?" answered a male voice.

"Malucci? What're you doing at my house?" he asked, surprised.

"I'm just visiting. I'm leaving soon."

"Okay. Well, tell Lucy I'll be home soon."

"Okay. Bye."

"See ya."

Carter clicked his phone off and drove down the large street and parked in the driveway at his house. He got out of his car and he walked up to the door, whistling. He was in a jovial mood. As he opened the door, all feelings of happiness were gone. Lucy was kissing Malucci and it looked like she was enjoying it. As Carter slammed the door and hopped in his car, Lucy heard the screeching of his tires and pulled away.

"Oh my God. What have I done?"

"Momma, why did daddy leave?"

"Nothing, baby. Just hang on a sec. Dave. Get out of my house!"

"But Lucy", he started.

"NOW!" she screamed, with tears in her eyes.

With a hurt look in his eyes, he left and she heard the reverberating slam of the door as he left.

"Momma?"

"We're going to the hospital. Get your sister. Maybe daddy's there."

Annabelle got Ralina and they all piled in the car and Lucy drove off toward the hospital, all of them worried.