Lucy coughed and tried to open her eyes. They felt shut tight. She
struggled to open them and when she did, they watered like crazy. She
coughed once more and got up. Her clothes were all drenched and her hair
was dripping. She coughed and reached a hand into the pool and splashed
some water on her eyes. She opened them with much strained difficulty. She
sat up and breathed in deep breaths as she coughed up water.
She glanced around the room. She saw bubbles rising from the shallow end of the pool. She got the strength and courage to force herself to step back into the pool and drag Carter out. He was unconscious then, and she gave him mouth-to-mouth. His eyes fluttered open and she pulled away as he coughed up water. She helped him to his feet and helped him walk over to the front door. He brought a small smile to his face. "I knew you liked me."
She hailed a cab and helped Carter in before getting in herself. She told the driver where to go and as soon as she arrived, she forked over a small amount of cash and then she got out of the car, proceeding to drag Carter out. She helped him walk through the automatic doors leading to the ER.
"I have several wounds on my head and I think Carter has some too," she mumbled. "So tired. Must sit down." Her knees buckled as she collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
"Oh my God. Get Mark, Kerry, someone!" cried Chuny, worriedly, rushing over.
As Dr. Weaver walked by, she noticed the hustle around something by the automatic doors. "Break it up. What's the?" she stopped dead in her words. "Get them on a gurney! Come on! It's not like you guys are interns or anything. Let's move!"
They got Carter and Lucy on gurneys and they checked vital stats and checked their injuries. "Pupils are responsive. Ooh! I don't think that's major head trauma but it could be a slight one, what do you think?" Carol asked.
"I think we should stop talking and start working," snapped Romano.
Carol sighed exasperatedly as she saw Lucy's eyes flutter open. "She's conscious!" Carol remarked, happily. Lucy glanced around.
"Carter," she whispered. "Is he ok?"
"He will be."
She sighed exasperatedly and closed her eyes to escape into her world. The world she loved. Her own make-believe world where pain never existed. She eventually drifted off into sleep and as she awoke, daylight arrived and Carter was awake and toying with his IV.
"You're awake," he mumbled.
"Yeah. I guess I am. Why?" she replied, chuckling.
"Nothing. I guess."
"Oh. Are you feeling better?" she inquired, worriedly.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Hey. You saved me," he smiled.
"You saved me first."
"Is this gonna result in an argument?" he grinned.
"I hope not."
Lucy sank back onto her fluffed pillow and stared at her IV. "This IV feels weird," Carter complained, wriggling about.
"Is that why you're playing with it?" she asked.
"I want to take it out."
"Go ahead. You know how to."
"I know but I don't want Kerry to get all mad at me or anything."
Lucy scoffed at the idea. Kerry? Mad? No. She laughed to herself. Why was she laughing? She was in a hospital room, connected to an IV, chatting with Carter. Geez, could this day get any more weird? Plus, he had saved her life on quite a few occasions.
She heard the clacking of footsteps to see Kerry walking in along with Carol and some of the scattered ER staff. Some of their close friends who were worried about them. "Hey! Look. They're awake," stated Elizabeth.
"Yes, we're awake," snapped Carter. "I'm glad you made such a brilliant observation."
"Geez, what's got you in such a bad mood?" inquired Kerry, with a glare.
"One guess," Lucy replied.
"The IV," replied Carol, Mark, and Elizabeth, in unison.
"Kerry, let me take it out!" he growled.
Kerry nodded. He removed it and emitted a sigh of relief. "God that thing was starting to itch," Carter remarked.
The scattered doctors and nurses laughed lightly. Lucy removed hers too. "Can we get changed and get back to work?" chirped Lucy.
"Changed? Together?" Haleh suggestively stated. "Now, what am I thinking? Surely, I'm not thinking anything close to a rumor."
"No, not together!" they scoffed. "Apart."
"Maybe getting changed together will make you people realize the feelings you have for each other," Haleh answered.
"Feelings? Hah!" they both scoffed again.
The doctors shrugged their shoulders and headed out the door as Lucy started to change, she noticed Carter was looking at her funny. She walked into the bathroom and shut and locked the door. She started to change when she heard Carter mumble something. "What were you looking at anyway?!" she yelled, loudly.
"Nothing. There's nothing to see!" he countered.
She growled as she waltzed out of the bathroom wearing a simple tee- shirt and a pair of jeans. She shrugged on her lab coat and automatically wrapped the stethoscope around her neck. "God!" she mumbled. "Another day- to-day grind at County."
"Hey. Be glad. You're not an actual doctor yet."
She laughed it off and continued walking out of the room. She walked into the hallway where she got run over by a gurney. She grunted in pain. "You gotta watch where you're going, Luce," Carter replied as she fell backwards.
"Thanks," she murmured.
Before he could get another word out, she had stampeded down the hallway, probably to wreak her revenge on the careless attendant running down the hallway with a runaway gurney. Carter walked outside and breathed in the fresh air, before coughing on the pollution. Fresh air, indeed. Some fresh air. He walked across the street to Starbucks and ordered something. At 2:00 in the morning, there really was no line. He brought his coffee out with him and sat on the green bench. He sipped at his coffee voluntarily. He let it cool for a second. Even in the December weather, the coffee had still burned his tongue.
He saw Lucy glance both ways before darting across the vacant street. He saw her walk, ever-so-casually, across the street and sipped at his coffee again. The metallic green Ford truck came out of an unnoticed alleyway and she stood there. Her feet looked glued to the cement and she looked like a deer in headlights as the truck approached. Carter tossed his coffee cup, with the cup three-quarters full, onto the sidewalk where it splattered noisily.
He dived across the street and shoved her painfully out of the way. The truck's tires made a shrill screech, meaning it was an attempt to stop. But the drunk driver was quite the dazed and confused person. Just as it hit Carter, the truck came to a complete stop. Carter was thrown back twenty feet. He hit the back of a brick wall and his head scraped against the brick.
"You idiot!" the driver swore. "You stained my new car!"
Lucy gaped at him in shock. What a selfish man! Worrying about his car like this. "Do you know what you just did?" she asked, with spite in her voice.
He turned his head to face her. "What?" he drawled.
"You probably just killed one of the best doctors in Chicago and all you're worried about is your stupid truck!" she snapped, sobbing. She raced over to the brick wall where Carter had so noisily, and messily, slammed into. She darted across the street and asked for a gurney. When asked what for, she ignored them. She grabbed the gurney with an unprecedented force and she ran it across the street without giving a whim as to who or what would see her. She gingerly placed Carter on the gurney and with the extra adrenaline pumping throughout her veins, she brought him back to the ER in no time.
"Oh my God. What happened to Carter?!" asked Mark, dropping something as he walked out of the Lounge.
"He got run over by a truck. A drunk driver was tearing up asphalt back there. Afterwards, all he could complain about was his truck and the huge stain it had on it!" she explained, again.
The nurses gaped at her in disbelief. "Okay. KERRY!" Mark hollered. "Stop chit-chatting for one second, nurses, and help me get him stabilized for crying out loud! He's in such critical condition because he was run over and you're gossiping or talking or whatever!"
Kerry walked out of the restroom and walked over and all her annoyed glances changed into worried ones. "Carter?"
"Yeah!" sniffed Mark. "Mind helping me rush him into the OR?!"
Kerry snapped out of her trance. "Of course! Lucy! You want to come here and help him through it?"
Mark and Lucy were both surprised by her forwardness. "Is he conscious?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah. He's conscious. Give me the bullet," Kerry ordered.
Chuny nodded gravely. She cleared her throat and started as they raced the gurney down the hall. "B/P 140/80. Breath sounds shallow. Pupils are responsive. ETA about 5 minutes ago. Head trauma. Rib fractures," she read the list slowly.
"Is he breathing?" Kerry asked.
"No," curtly replied Haleh.
"Intubate him. Give him a 35 French," she barked.
"36 would be better," Lucy quickly added.
"35 won't fit!" Carol remarked.
"Try 36!" Mark replied, agitated.
"What do we need, boss?" asked Chuny, prepared to bolt out of the room.
Kerry didn't bother to glance up. "Get me a", she hesitated. "Uh, get me a chest film, a CT, a dopamine drip, a Demerol IV push, 500 cc's of saline, and", Kerry stopped.
"A CBC!" Mark finished for her.
With a quick nod of the head, Chuny shot off. They got an ECG connected up to his heart and the rhythmic beeps from the large machine helped soothe Lucy's nerves for a while. The descending and alerting beeps brought doctors to swarm around the machine.
"He's going into V-Fib, Mark!" cried Carol, worriedly.
"Start compressions! Do what you'd normally do!" he shot back.
She shut up and started doing what he stated. "Should we bag him?"
"Whatever you want."
"Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5", she counted.
"Charge to 200 joules," remarked Mark.
"Charging," Lydia murmured.
"Clear."
The paddles shocked Carter's heart but it did little to change the rhythmic alerting beeps coming from the machine. "Should I?" Carol reiterated, pausing.
"Go ahead!" he countered.
She paused in silence and she kept coming with the compressions as all the nurses huddled in a circle and watched, except for Lydia, Carol, and Chuny, whom had just returned.
"I got your Demerol IV Push!" she shouted, amid all the chaos. "I got your CT, your CBC, your everything!"
"GREAT! Hand it to Kerry! Have her examine it!" Mark yelled, exasperatedly.
Carol continued with the compressions as Lydia charged to 250. Mark shocked him again but nothing happened. Again, they charged to 300 before they got a steady heartbeat. They had gotten him stabilized, for the moment. Carol plopped down onto a chair and sighed. "You know, one day, I'm just not going to work here anymore. Transfer to cardio or something."
"I doubt that," scoffed Elizabeth, walking in. "May I be of assistance?"
"Yes. Read these", answered Mark, handing her the mess of X-ray sheets and such. "While I go have a nurse set up the IV pushes and crap."
Elizabeth snorted and walked off. She waltzed into a room and placed the sheets on a fluorescent screen which showed the individual fractures that Carter had. He had two rib fractures and a large bloody mass at the back of his skull. Elizabeth called for Mark.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Look at this! He's got severe head trauma and he has two rib fractures along with everything else," she explained, her British accent clearly becoming visible as her forehead wrinkled with worry.
"It'll be okay. We'll take good care of him. Hey! He lapsed out of unconsciousness today! He's talking too. That's got to be a good sign, right?" Mark remarked.
"Hey. That's wonderful. Has Lucy gone to see him?" she asked. "May we go upstairs to see him as well?"
"Yes, we can up. I'm not sure Lucy's awake. Let's go wake her up."
They walked into the third story hospital room Carter was occupying. He was in ICU. Lucy was asleep on his arm. He was awake and glancing around. He shook his left arm suddenly. Lucy's eyes fluttered open. "You're awake!" she cried, happily, hugging him. "I can't believe you risked your life to save me."
"I'd do anything for you."
Lucy grinned and shook her head in denial. He sighed and sank his head back on the plumped pillow. It looked like it had been plumped a million times. He clutched his chest in pain and he sank back and groaned. The ECG slowly declined as Carter groaned in pain. "Help me, Mark," he rasped. They wheeled his bed out back to the OR and Lucy slowly ran after the gurney. As they stopped inside the nearest room, Carter was wincing in such pain that his face was in a grimace for quite a few minutes before his facial expression changed.
"Lucy, I want you to know that I", he paused, clutching his heart again in pain. "I love you and that when I die."
She interrupted him with a gasp. She was speechless. "You're not going to die," she whispered. "You're not. They won't let you."
"Do you love me?" he asked, seriously.
"Well, I", she paused.
His face sank in disappointment and as he sank back on the fluffed pillows, he mumbled what could be distinguished as a good-bye and he closed his eyes. The flat line beeped in distress but it was already too late to save him. "Asystole. Call it."
Lucy held her head in her hands as she wept. She noticed as a tear hit his cheek and she watched it fall down his cheek. She leaned in close and kissed his lips slowly and pulled away. "I love you too," she answered, finally.
Sadly, she walked out of the room but as she walked out, she quickly grasped Mark's arm and pulled him into the room. "What?" he asked.
"Listen."
His eardrums perked up and could hear the faintest beeping. The sign of a heartbeat. "Elizabeth!" he cried. "Un-call it! He's got a heartbeat and a pulse!"
This was definitely a good omen and definitely a good day for Lucy Knight. As she walked out into the hallway, she saw someone jumping for joy. The nurse handed Lucy an envelope. She opened it.
"Dear Ms. Knight: We are happy to announce that you have been accepted for your residency and are no longer a medical student. Please speak to the administrators at your hospital about this residency. Attached is a note a doctor who is no longer available at your hospital wanted to give to you", she read, before pausing to switch letters. "Dear Lucy: Hey. It's Doug. You probably never met me. I'm the father of Carol's children. I'm in Seattle right now. I want to tell you that Carol's told me a lot about you. Even though I don't know you, I'm proud of you. I'm glad you chose to work at County. Hey, look at the bright side, at least you get to date Carter."
She laughed a light-hearted laugh and set the letters back into the envelope and walked out of the hazardous location she was in and into the Lounge. She drank a cup of coffee and thought about Carter and the interesting (to say the least) relationship they would have.
She glanced around the room. She saw bubbles rising from the shallow end of the pool. She got the strength and courage to force herself to step back into the pool and drag Carter out. He was unconscious then, and she gave him mouth-to-mouth. His eyes fluttered open and she pulled away as he coughed up water. She helped him to his feet and helped him walk over to the front door. He brought a small smile to his face. "I knew you liked me."
She hailed a cab and helped Carter in before getting in herself. She told the driver where to go and as soon as she arrived, she forked over a small amount of cash and then she got out of the car, proceeding to drag Carter out. She helped him walk through the automatic doors leading to the ER.
"I have several wounds on my head and I think Carter has some too," she mumbled. "So tired. Must sit down." Her knees buckled as she collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
"Oh my God. Get Mark, Kerry, someone!" cried Chuny, worriedly, rushing over.
As Dr. Weaver walked by, she noticed the hustle around something by the automatic doors. "Break it up. What's the?" she stopped dead in her words. "Get them on a gurney! Come on! It's not like you guys are interns or anything. Let's move!"
They got Carter and Lucy on gurneys and they checked vital stats and checked their injuries. "Pupils are responsive. Ooh! I don't think that's major head trauma but it could be a slight one, what do you think?" Carol asked.
"I think we should stop talking and start working," snapped Romano.
Carol sighed exasperatedly as she saw Lucy's eyes flutter open. "She's conscious!" Carol remarked, happily. Lucy glanced around.
"Carter," she whispered. "Is he ok?"
"He will be."
She sighed exasperatedly and closed her eyes to escape into her world. The world she loved. Her own make-believe world where pain never existed. She eventually drifted off into sleep and as she awoke, daylight arrived and Carter was awake and toying with his IV.
"You're awake," he mumbled.
"Yeah. I guess I am. Why?" she replied, chuckling.
"Nothing. I guess."
"Oh. Are you feeling better?" she inquired, worriedly.
"Yeah. I'm fine. Hey. You saved me," he smiled.
"You saved me first."
"Is this gonna result in an argument?" he grinned.
"I hope not."
Lucy sank back onto her fluffed pillow and stared at her IV. "This IV feels weird," Carter complained, wriggling about.
"Is that why you're playing with it?" she asked.
"I want to take it out."
"Go ahead. You know how to."
"I know but I don't want Kerry to get all mad at me or anything."
Lucy scoffed at the idea. Kerry? Mad? No. She laughed to herself. Why was she laughing? She was in a hospital room, connected to an IV, chatting with Carter. Geez, could this day get any more weird? Plus, he had saved her life on quite a few occasions.
She heard the clacking of footsteps to see Kerry walking in along with Carol and some of the scattered ER staff. Some of their close friends who were worried about them. "Hey! Look. They're awake," stated Elizabeth.
"Yes, we're awake," snapped Carter. "I'm glad you made such a brilliant observation."
"Geez, what's got you in such a bad mood?" inquired Kerry, with a glare.
"One guess," Lucy replied.
"The IV," replied Carol, Mark, and Elizabeth, in unison.
"Kerry, let me take it out!" he growled.
Kerry nodded. He removed it and emitted a sigh of relief. "God that thing was starting to itch," Carter remarked.
The scattered doctors and nurses laughed lightly. Lucy removed hers too. "Can we get changed and get back to work?" chirped Lucy.
"Changed? Together?" Haleh suggestively stated. "Now, what am I thinking? Surely, I'm not thinking anything close to a rumor."
"No, not together!" they scoffed. "Apart."
"Maybe getting changed together will make you people realize the feelings you have for each other," Haleh answered.
"Feelings? Hah!" they both scoffed again.
The doctors shrugged their shoulders and headed out the door as Lucy started to change, she noticed Carter was looking at her funny. She walked into the bathroom and shut and locked the door. She started to change when she heard Carter mumble something. "What were you looking at anyway?!" she yelled, loudly.
"Nothing. There's nothing to see!" he countered.
She growled as she waltzed out of the bathroom wearing a simple tee- shirt and a pair of jeans. She shrugged on her lab coat and automatically wrapped the stethoscope around her neck. "God!" she mumbled. "Another day- to-day grind at County."
"Hey. Be glad. You're not an actual doctor yet."
She laughed it off and continued walking out of the room. She walked into the hallway where she got run over by a gurney. She grunted in pain. "You gotta watch where you're going, Luce," Carter replied as she fell backwards.
"Thanks," she murmured.
Before he could get another word out, she had stampeded down the hallway, probably to wreak her revenge on the careless attendant running down the hallway with a runaway gurney. Carter walked outside and breathed in the fresh air, before coughing on the pollution. Fresh air, indeed. Some fresh air. He walked across the street to Starbucks and ordered something. At 2:00 in the morning, there really was no line. He brought his coffee out with him and sat on the green bench. He sipped at his coffee voluntarily. He let it cool for a second. Even in the December weather, the coffee had still burned his tongue.
He saw Lucy glance both ways before darting across the vacant street. He saw her walk, ever-so-casually, across the street and sipped at his coffee again. The metallic green Ford truck came out of an unnoticed alleyway and she stood there. Her feet looked glued to the cement and she looked like a deer in headlights as the truck approached. Carter tossed his coffee cup, with the cup three-quarters full, onto the sidewalk where it splattered noisily.
He dived across the street and shoved her painfully out of the way. The truck's tires made a shrill screech, meaning it was an attempt to stop. But the drunk driver was quite the dazed and confused person. Just as it hit Carter, the truck came to a complete stop. Carter was thrown back twenty feet. He hit the back of a brick wall and his head scraped against the brick.
"You idiot!" the driver swore. "You stained my new car!"
Lucy gaped at him in shock. What a selfish man! Worrying about his car like this. "Do you know what you just did?" she asked, with spite in her voice.
He turned his head to face her. "What?" he drawled.
"You probably just killed one of the best doctors in Chicago and all you're worried about is your stupid truck!" she snapped, sobbing. She raced over to the brick wall where Carter had so noisily, and messily, slammed into. She darted across the street and asked for a gurney. When asked what for, she ignored them. She grabbed the gurney with an unprecedented force and she ran it across the street without giving a whim as to who or what would see her. She gingerly placed Carter on the gurney and with the extra adrenaline pumping throughout her veins, she brought him back to the ER in no time.
"Oh my God. What happened to Carter?!" asked Mark, dropping something as he walked out of the Lounge.
"He got run over by a truck. A drunk driver was tearing up asphalt back there. Afterwards, all he could complain about was his truck and the huge stain it had on it!" she explained, again.
The nurses gaped at her in disbelief. "Okay. KERRY!" Mark hollered. "Stop chit-chatting for one second, nurses, and help me get him stabilized for crying out loud! He's in such critical condition because he was run over and you're gossiping or talking or whatever!"
Kerry walked out of the restroom and walked over and all her annoyed glances changed into worried ones. "Carter?"
"Yeah!" sniffed Mark. "Mind helping me rush him into the OR?!"
Kerry snapped out of her trance. "Of course! Lucy! You want to come here and help him through it?"
Mark and Lucy were both surprised by her forwardness. "Is he conscious?" Lucy asked.
"Yeah. He's conscious. Give me the bullet," Kerry ordered.
Chuny nodded gravely. She cleared her throat and started as they raced the gurney down the hall. "B/P 140/80. Breath sounds shallow. Pupils are responsive. ETA about 5 minutes ago. Head trauma. Rib fractures," she read the list slowly.
"Is he breathing?" Kerry asked.
"No," curtly replied Haleh.
"Intubate him. Give him a 35 French," she barked.
"36 would be better," Lucy quickly added.
"35 won't fit!" Carol remarked.
"Try 36!" Mark replied, agitated.
"What do we need, boss?" asked Chuny, prepared to bolt out of the room.
Kerry didn't bother to glance up. "Get me a", she hesitated. "Uh, get me a chest film, a CT, a dopamine drip, a Demerol IV push, 500 cc's of saline, and", Kerry stopped.
"A CBC!" Mark finished for her.
With a quick nod of the head, Chuny shot off. They got an ECG connected up to his heart and the rhythmic beeps from the large machine helped soothe Lucy's nerves for a while. The descending and alerting beeps brought doctors to swarm around the machine.
"He's going into V-Fib, Mark!" cried Carol, worriedly.
"Start compressions! Do what you'd normally do!" he shot back.
She shut up and started doing what he stated. "Should we bag him?"
"Whatever you want."
"Okay. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5", she counted.
"Charge to 200 joules," remarked Mark.
"Charging," Lydia murmured.
"Clear."
The paddles shocked Carter's heart but it did little to change the rhythmic alerting beeps coming from the machine. "Should I?" Carol reiterated, pausing.
"Go ahead!" he countered.
She paused in silence and she kept coming with the compressions as all the nurses huddled in a circle and watched, except for Lydia, Carol, and Chuny, whom had just returned.
"I got your Demerol IV Push!" she shouted, amid all the chaos. "I got your CT, your CBC, your everything!"
"GREAT! Hand it to Kerry! Have her examine it!" Mark yelled, exasperatedly.
Carol continued with the compressions as Lydia charged to 250. Mark shocked him again but nothing happened. Again, they charged to 300 before they got a steady heartbeat. They had gotten him stabilized, for the moment. Carol plopped down onto a chair and sighed. "You know, one day, I'm just not going to work here anymore. Transfer to cardio or something."
"I doubt that," scoffed Elizabeth, walking in. "May I be of assistance?"
"Yes. Read these", answered Mark, handing her the mess of X-ray sheets and such. "While I go have a nurse set up the IV pushes and crap."
Elizabeth snorted and walked off. She waltzed into a room and placed the sheets on a fluorescent screen which showed the individual fractures that Carter had. He had two rib fractures and a large bloody mass at the back of his skull. Elizabeth called for Mark.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Look at this! He's got severe head trauma and he has two rib fractures along with everything else," she explained, her British accent clearly becoming visible as her forehead wrinkled with worry.
"It'll be okay. We'll take good care of him. Hey! He lapsed out of unconsciousness today! He's talking too. That's got to be a good sign, right?" Mark remarked.
"Hey. That's wonderful. Has Lucy gone to see him?" she asked. "May we go upstairs to see him as well?"
"Yes, we can up. I'm not sure Lucy's awake. Let's go wake her up."
They walked into the third story hospital room Carter was occupying. He was in ICU. Lucy was asleep on his arm. He was awake and glancing around. He shook his left arm suddenly. Lucy's eyes fluttered open. "You're awake!" she cried, happily, hugging him. "I can't believe you risked your life to save me."
"I'd do anything for you."
Lucy grinned and shook her head in denial. He sighed and sank his head back on the plumped pillow. It looked like it had been plumped a million times. He clutched his chest in pain and he sank back and groaned. The ECG slowly declined as Carter groaned in pain. "Help me, Mark," he rasped. They wheeled his bed out back to the OR and Lucy slowly ran after the gurney. As they stopped inside the nearest room, Carter was wincing in such pain that his face was in a grimace for quite a few minutes before his facial expression changed.
"Lucy, I want you to know that I", he paused, clutching his heart again in pain. "I love you and that when I die."
She interrupted him with a gasp. She was speechless. "You're not going to die," she whispered. "You're not. They won't let you."
"Do you love me?" he asked, seriously.
"Well, I", she paused.
His face sank in disappointment and as he sank back on the fluffed pillows, he mumbled what could be distinguished as a good-bye and he closed his eyes. The flat line beeped in distress but it was already too late to save him. "Asystole. Call it."
Lucy held her head in her hands as she wept. She noticed as a tear hit his cheek and she watched it fall down his cheek. She leaned in close and kissed his lips slowly and pulled away. "I love you too," she answered, finally.
Sadly, she walked out of the room but as she walked out, she quickly grasped Mark's arm and pulled him into the room. "What?" he asked.
"Listen."
His eardrums perked up and could hear the faintest beeping. The sign of a heartbeat. "Elizabeth!" he cried. "Un-call it! He's got a heartbeat and a pulse!"
This was definitely a good omen and definitely a good day for Lucy Knight. As she walked out into the hallway, she saw someone jumping for joy. The nurse handed Lucy an envelope. She opened it.
"Dear Ms. Knight: We are happy to announce that you have been accepted for your residency and are no longer a medical student. Please speak to the administrators at your hospital about this residency. Attached is a note a doctor who is no longer available at your hospital wanted to give to you", she read, before pausing to switch letters. "Dear Lucy: Hey. It's Doug. You probably never met me. I'm the father of Carol's children. I'm in Seattle right now. I want to tell you that Carol's told me a lot about you. Even though I don't know you, I'm proud of you. I'm glad you chose to work at County. Hey, look at the bright side, at least you get to date Carter."
She laughed a light-hearted laugh and set the letters back into the envelope and walked out of the hazardous location she was in and into the Lounge. She drank a cup of coffee and thought about Carter and the interesting (to say the least) relationship they would have.