"Rock Bottom"

Part 4

Disclaimer: ER and all its characters belong to NBC etc and no infringement of their copyright is intended.

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Once free of the confinements of the hospital elevator, Kerry Weaver stormed down the long ER corridor like a woman possessed. Anger radiated from the doctor from every pore as she headed towards the reception desk to search for Mark. She could not believe Romano's behaviour upstairs in his office; allowing John to come back to work at County and treat patients like nothing had happened was a serious error in judgement.

John had been taking narcotics whilst at work and so therefore he had been treating patients whilst high. And Romano was happy just to let Carter continue to do this?

Couldn't he accept her word that the resident had become overly dependent on his pain meds?

She lowered her shaking head as she rounded a corner. She could not get over it. This was not going to help Carter see how much of a problem he has, if anything it would only support his belief that he hasn't got a problem at all.

There was also another difficulty with Romano's scheme; how was she supposed to continue with the overwhelming duties of Chief of Emergency Medicine and watch over a resident throughout his entire, possibly chaotic, shift? Plus check his patient charts on top of checking her own.

There was also the fact that in traumas things can get extremely hectic and you need to focus entirely on attempting to save the patient, not watching a doctor to see how much painkiller he draws up for the patient and if he keeps any for himself.

Romano had also ordered her to tell the others in the ER about John's condition and make sure that they continuously watch his behaviour. Did she tell everyone or just those closest to Carter? Logically telling the nurses would be best as they were with the doctors more than anyone else was.

Kerry suddenly paused deep in thought just before the admit desk, almost sending a startled Malucci flying over her. She barely gave him a glance as she continued with her troubling thoughts. Haleh and Lydia and a few of the other nurses had known Carter since he first started here as a med student. They obviously cared a great deal about the young resident and would probably want to try their hardest to give John the help and support he desperately needs. There were also the people who had taken part in the intervention: Jing-Mei, Peter and Mark. Donald was not around enough to observe Carter's behaviour so it wouldn't benefit the situation to inform him.

Kerry decided just to confide in those closest to Carter and spent the greatest time with him, as this would be less suspicious to the resident.

Satisfied that this would be the best solution, Kerry marched over to a sitting Mark Greene and waited until he had replaced the telephone's receiver into it's rightful position before speaking.

"Mark…could I speak to you for a moment please?" She asked softly.

The male doctor turned his head to face her. "Sure Kerry what's up?"

"No in private please." She responded motioning towards an empty exam room nearby.

Mark wordlessly nodded and followed Kerry into Curtain 2, closing the door firmly behind him.

"Is something the matter?" He queried concerned. He had heard through the ER grapevine that a furious Romano had been looking for Kerry this morning and he had been curious as to what she had been on the receiving end of.

Kerry sighed and rubbed her temples in a vain attempt to recede her growing headache. "God I don't know where to start." She admitted and tiredly perched herself on a neighbouring stool and leant her crutch against her leg. She decided just to launch straight into it. "Carter has called in his lawyers, he's claiming unfair dismissal." She paused and looked at her companion for a response.

"What?!" Mark exclaimed, stunned.

"Yeah, that's the reason why Romano wanted to see me first thing this morning. Apparently two lawyers representing the Carter family paid a visit to him in his office upstairs. Essentially they informed him that if Carter was not allowed to continue his medical career here at County then they would bring legal action against the hospital."

"I can't believe this." Mark told her, leaning his body against an adjacent gurney and folding his arms over his chest. "What did Romano say?"

Kerry chuckled bitterly and brushed a strand of auburn hair out of her tired eyes.

"He talked to legal and they basically informed him that we have no case here, Carter has to come back to work in the ER. County isn't prepared to lose a case this big with the minuscule amount of evidence we have; it's just one allegation Mark.

They are not prepared to fight it…" She continued, lowering her voice "…not like we are."

Mark was absolutely astounded. He felt a burst of anger start to take over his body.

"Did you fully explain the situation to him? That Carter was stealing narcotics from the trauma rooms?"

"I told him everything Mark. I tried everything I could think of to convince him to rethink his decision, but every one of my arguments was futile." Kerry explained

"How could he do that?" Mark asked perplexed. " A doctor in the ER is stealing drugs and injecting them whilst on duty and even with knowing this he still saw it best to let Carter return; it's just senseless. I'd like to know what kind of objectivity he seem to have that we don't!"

The female doctor nodded in agreement. "He's only looking at it from a legal perspective, it's different for us."

"So what," Mark asked waving his hands in the air. "We are just going to let him back here like nothing has happened?"

Kerry nodded again. "But I want everyone on the lookout. If Carter tries anything again I want to know about it. Then we'll take it from there. I think everyone who was at the intervention yesterday and the nurses who are closest to Carter should be informed.

Mark sighed as he stood up and opened the exam door. "Okay I'll go and round up the troops…or should I say spies?" He questioned bitterly, shaking his head as he walked out into the hallway.

Kerry put her hand into her crutch and stepped towards the door, watching Mark's retreating figure from her solitary position in the doorway.

*When had things become so complicated?*

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The shrill ringing of the telephone downstairs awoke Carter from his morning slumber and he groaned loudly at the interruption. It was one of the lovely perks he had come to discover of living in a large mansion; every single noise no matter what the volume would echo throughout the entire house.

After a few moments the young doctor tried burrowing his head under his large pillow as a source of cover but the incessant noise kept rebounding in his head.

"God damn it, shut the hell up!" He muttered into his mattress, willing for someone to answer it.

As if the higher powers had been listening to his prayers the phone was suddenly picked up and the sound finally ceased.

Putting his hands flat on either side of his pillow Carter reluctantly pushed his head from his comfy hiding place and shook his head from side to side. He wearily ran his hand through his hair and turned on his side to try and invoke some life into him.

* Hallelujah. *

Blearily peering at his alarm clock on his wooden bedside table Carter tried to focus on the red coloured readout. It took him a moment to horrifyingly realise that it was after 12pm.

*Shit!! I'm gonna be late for work!*

The resident quickly leapt from his cocoon of a duvet and made a dive for the bathroom, all the while cursing his body for not falling asleep sooner. It took him so long nowadays to fall asleep that sometimes he just gave up and wandered the confines of the property as a source of comfort. Of course this had it's consequences and his sleeping pattern had suffered so much that when he did manage to get some shuteye events soon caught up with him and he could sleep for hours, dead to the world.

Why didn't he set his alarm clock? Now Kerry would be pissed at him and………oh, right.

He paused just before the entrance to his bathroom as the previous day's events came flooding back to him in painstaking detail, and his stomach started churning. The young doctor wearily eased himself down onto the side of the bath and pondered what to do now.

He no longer had a job to go to so there seemed no obvious reason to continue with his current course of action. Turning his gaze briefly through the bathroom door to his unkempt bed, he knew he would not be able to get back to sleep now unfortunately. His body was not that accommodating.

Maybe he should get up anyway and try contacting the other hospitals in Chicago. There was always the possibility that one of them would have a position available, that is assuming that Kerry hadn't already blackened his name at every medical establishment in the area. That wouldn't surprise him.

His grandmother had informed him last night that first thing this morning she would call the family lawyers and rectify the situation. However this would almost definitely result in the informing of Romano and once he was acquainted with the situation then there would be little possibility of a career inside or outside County.

An intriguing thought suddenly popped inside of Carter's head as he leaned his head into his right hand and placed his elbow on his knee. What if Romano actually believed his side of the story instead? Who's to say he wouldn't? An inexperienced medical student made the allegation, and if it weren't for Kerry and Mark jumping on the bandwagon, putting two and two together and getting five, then none of this would have happened. They stuck their noses in where they did not belong and just saw what they wanted to see. Had either of them once noticed all the pain that he had been in these last few months? Had they ever realised the effort he had put in to coming back to work and trying to put things behind him? All that takes a lot out of a person, especially a person still in continuous pain. Is it so much to ask for a little understanding of his position?

*I've been here, I've showed up.*

*That's not the point John.*

Perhaps if he explained the situation to Romano personally and confessed that he still was in a lot of pain, but that there is absolutely no possibility of him stealing from the hospital. Yes he would admit that it was wrong to waste narcotics down the sink without someone there to witness that, but he just thought that being an experienced doctor that it wouldn't matter. He was wrongly naïve and he would accept his punishment for that, but not for something he didn't do. Drug addict indeed. Did he look like a drug addict? Would someone like him become a drug addict?

There was also the fact that Kerry had recently been suspended for going against Romanos orders concerning a patient. The surgeon would not have liked that. It was probably a safe bet that things are tense between the two chiefs at the moment. If Carter played on this and reminded Romano that he has had an unblemished past at County, then the resident could probably convince Romano to believe him over Kerry.

"John?"

The sound of his grandmother's voice calling him from downstairs startled Carter and he suddenly slipped from his safe perch on the side of the bath, banging his lower back on the hard floor. Agonising pain shot down his left side and he scrunched his eyes tightly shut and grinded his teeth together to try and overcome it.

After a few long moments of taking deep breaths he struggled to raise himself up and shakingly reached out his hand to the large medicine cabinet above the sink.

Catching his reflection in the mirror made him pause and the doctor gasped with shock at the person that stared back at him; he almost didn't recognise himself. Dark circles now surrounded what were once bright and caring orbs of brown. Now only endless pools of sadness were evident. Paleness also now engulfed his features and he wondered when was the last time he had been out in the sun.

Carter shook his head to banish the awful image and focused on the greater emergency – his back. As he opened the door to peer inside, his hands trembled with anticipation. The cabinet was filled with an abundness of various medicines and the doctor had to search through the different bottles and packets until his hand landed on the white bottle he was so desperately looking for.

He had sweet-talked his doctor into prescribing him something stronger for his back under the agreement that he would go and see someone at the hospital regarding the large amount of pain he was in. Carter had to draw on the little amount of surgical expertise he still possessed to describe the surgical procedure that had been carried out on him on Valentine's Day. He had exaggerated some of the procedures a bit and informed his doctor that Dr Benton had admitted that his hematoma wasn't resolving as fast as it should have been.

Fortunately his doctor was getting old and had known Carter since he was a child and had therefore taken him at his word. The resident hated lying to him as the man had been wonderful to him his entire life, but he was so desperate for relief that it was the only alternative.

He had even resorted to switching his bottles of painkillers so that the more powerful pills were contained in the low dose Tylenol bottle instead. If he ever needed the tablets at work he did not want his colleagues to see how much he was taking.

Carefully bending his thin body down onto the toilet seat he hastily unscrewed the childproof cap open before swallowing two oval tablets in quick succession… just as his grandmother entered the bathroom.

"John dear did you not hear me… goodness gracious John you look dreadful. Are you alright?" Millicent asked, concerned for her youngest grandchild. She rushed over to him and placed her hand on his forehead, checking for a temperature.

"I'm fine Gamma, " he replied quickly removing his face from her hand and turning his body away from her inquisitive gaze. "I just slipped on the way into the bathroom and hurt my back, that's all."

Carter hastily returned the pill bottle to the front of the medicine cabinet before slowly lifting himself up and returning to his bedroom. Out of the corner of his eye he watched his grandmother follow him into his room, as he stiffly sank down into his desk chair. He rubbed his hand over his sore back, imaging the bruise that would soon appear there.

"Is there uh something I can do for you Gamma?" Carter asked, willing the pain medication to work faster. He was so fed up with the constant pain radiating from his back. It seemed sometimes that it was actually getting worse instead of better.

Millicent stared hard at her grandson before answering "That was David on the phone just now, our lawyer. He wanted to inform us that they have spoken with County and everything has been amended. You can return to work tomorrow if that is alright with you?"

Carter raised his eyebrows in sheer astonishment. "Really? That's it, I can just walk right back into the ER? No questions, no conditions, nothing?"

Taking in his Grandmother's nod Carter just stared at her open mouthed. This was too easy. He was expecting some resistance at the very least, but to just return like nothing had happened, surely Kerry and Mark would not just give in?

The doctor quickly returned his gaze to his grandmother. "Who did David speak with at the hospital, did he say?" He queried suspiciously.

"I think he said a Robert Romano," Millicent answered.

Carter could not believe it. Had Romano really believed him or had Kerry accepted what he had said all along? But yesterday she had seemed so determined to get him to that damn treatment place in Atlanta, what had changed her mind? The resident was obviously going to find out tomorrow.

"I think this calls for a celebration John, would you like to join me for lunch?"

"I'd like that very much Gamma."

"Good. I'll meet you downstairs shortly."

Carter was about to head back into the bathroom when he noticed that his grandmother seemed to be in a fair amount of pain and was wearily rubbing her temples.

"Are you ok Gamma?" He asked putting his arm around her shoulder in a gesture of comfort.

"I'm fine John. I've just got a headache that's all. I didn't sleep very well last night and it has left me slightly tired. I think I will go and take a few Tylenol before we leave for the restaurant."

"We don't have to go if you are unwell."

"Nonsense dear," She insisted. "You go and get ready, I'll be fine." And with that she made her way out of his room to let her grandson get ready.