Doug, Carol, and John made their way to a local pub to the hospital to grab a bit to eat and catch up, and talk about the old days. Chuni, who recognised that Carol needed a break, told her to enjoy herself and she take the twins with her and Carol gratefully accept her offer. When entering the pub John immediately took orders for drinks and proceeded to the bar. This left Doug and Carol to talk privately for a while.
"He seems to alright!" Doug stated, but he wasn't that all convinced.
"Yeah he seems to be handling himself okay. He has been though a lot Doug, he will never be the John Carter you remembered when we lived here. God the heartache he must of went though!" Carol added, and Doug realised what Carol was saying was true. He also knew Carol was talking about John losing Lucy as she closed her sentence, and selfishly wished and player that he would never lose Carol and go though want John did.
"When do you think he first fell in love with Lucy? I mean love not attraction, because that was always there!"
"I honestly have no idea."
"Did you see the faces of the nurses as we came out of the lounge?" Carol asked Doug.
"Yeah, strange really I thought they all knew we were here!"
"Doug they weren't looking at us they were looking at John!" Carol whispered in case John could overhear, as the bar wasn't that far from them. "They were shocked at the way he was acting." Carol added. Doug was confused.
"How do you know this?" Doug questions her.
"Chuni told me! She said he hadn't looked so happy in his life. And I reminded her, of course he has, he just hasn't been this happy or anything to be happy about, since Lucy died. Doug, I kind of let it out that John will never be truly happy again because Lucy isn't alive."
Doug just stared at Carol in astonishment, he knew Carol had without any intention just made John's life harder, as the nurses would figure out why John couldn't be entirely happy without Lucy, they would guess John loved Lucy. He was glad though that she didn't let it out to their former colleagues that John was still very much in love with Lucy, or he hoped she didn't.
"You have to tell John what you just told me, he deserves a head up in case they question him about how much he cared for Lucy."
"I know I do, but I don't know how to start telling him. I didn't mean to open up my big mouth and tell them what John told us in confidence." Carol pleaded to Doug; she wanted Doug to believe her.
"Carol, I will always believe what you tell me. But as for John I have no idea, like you said before his not the same John Carter we knew back when his was a medical student."
Carol laughed at Doug, did he honestly believe that was whom John was like before he left to live in Seattle, a bumbling little medical student. John hadn't been like a bumbling medical student for years before they left for Seattle.
"Doug, John grew out of the bumbling little medical student long before we left Chicago."
"I know, but that's the way I will always see him." Doug started to laugh followed by Carol.
John came back to the table and was welcome by two every laughing adult; they took one look at him and laughed harder.
"Okay, what did I do? As I can tell you're laughing about me!"
Carol took some deep breaths to calm her laughing.
"Sorry John, Doug and I were remembering when you were a bumbling little medical student, we couldn't help ourselves. You were so amusing back then."
John chuckled as he placed the glasses down on the table.
"Don't I know about it, god that's seems like a very long time ago. In the first two weeks I kept knocking everything over."
"Not true, it was the first whole… year!" Doug said and bust out laughing again, he tried not to say the remark but couldn't help himself, John handed him the dig.
"I'm sure you weren't any better as a medical student."
"Too true, but I did it with class." Doug spoke now calmed down.
"Class, I have more class in the tip of my little finger then you!" John rolled back, sending him and Carol into more fits of laughter. Doug blinked a few times to make sure it was John whom came up that comeback to his remark.
"Who are you? Last time I checked John Carter didn't think of anything quick enough to come up with comebacks like that." Doug question.
"What can I say, you handed it to me!"
The evening carried on with them reminiscing about the past, what Doug and Carol did in Seattle, etc. Carol had also told John what she told Doug earlier and John wasn't at all angry, he also believes Carol that it was a slip of the tongue and meant nothing by it. John was enjoying himself and he wished that Doug and Carol weren't going to leave Chicago again; he missed their company and the friendship they shared with each other. It felt like it did before the tragedy of three years, and for a faction of a minute forgot that Lucy died, and believes she was waiting at the hospital for the beginning of her shift, that was before the subject changed to Lucy.
When did you realise you loved Lucy?" Carol asked the question Doug asked her earlier, she was just as or even more curious then Doug.
John took a soothing breath it was always hard to talk about Lucy, but he trusted Doug and Carol not to say anything. Doug less then Carol as he always seemed in the past if you told him something in confidence the mater would be around the hospital faster then a bush fire.
"I thought about that a lot, I believe it was round about early December when she first started in the ER."
Carol didn't expect John to say that early, but as she thought about it that was round about the time they started to get on with each other better, instead of at each others faces all the time.
"I miss her so much, sometimes I forget how she use to look, the sound of her voice, but I don't forget not really. I always seem to wish she was here and we talk, like the talks we use to have on the roof. Sometimes I just seem to talk in an empty room to her, like I have just felt her walk in or my mind tells me that. When that happens I can't stop talking. I talk about everything that has happen that makes me mad, sad etc. It's my release to think she's in the room with me."
John decided that now he had started talking about the way he felt he was going to keep talking. John looked at Carol and Doug he could see pity in their eyes, but he doesn't care. He knows they only pity him because this should never of happen to him.
"If She was back, what be the first thing you do?" Doug question.
"Kiss her…"
"I knew it!" Doug interrupted John.
"…again!" John finished his sentence.
"Again… what do you mean by again?" Doug asked why looking between the both of them, he could tell Carol knew something about this.
"Did you forget to mention something honey?"
"No, not really, only the gossip about John and Lucy in an exam room." Carol sweetly said back to Doug.
"What exam room? When?" Doug questioned them both.
"Exam 6." John answered Doug's first question.
"When you left." Carol answered his second question. "You left the hospital right before it happen, and I had a resolve never to speck to you again, so I didn't tell you."
They continued talking until it was getting late, and Carol and Doug had to pick up the girls. Carol moaned about how her mother was making it obvious she didn't like Doug as they walked over the threshold of the pub and out of the blue said to John we accept the offer you made earlier why talking. Earlier John had offer them with girls to stay at the Carter mansion why his Grandmother was out of town, and of course they refused saying they wouldn't be able to get used to being taken off hand and foot by the staff. But as the evening drawn on Carol realised it was an excellent place to get away from her mother antics.
John helped them pick up Kate and Tess from Chuni and then on to her mothers to pick their stuff. After 30 minutes waiting in the car with Doug and the girls Carol came storming out with one bag. Carol got into John jeep and slammed the door, both Doug and John looked hard at her.
"Sorry about the door John, but mother can be impossible sometimes and always gets me this mad. We be picking up the rest of the bags tomorrow Doug, I got one set of clothes and night wear." Carol stated.
John drove off with two sleeping children and two extremely quiet adults. Once he was home he showed where they would be sleeping, then headed straight to bed. He closed his door and in the chair to the left Lucy sat watching him get ready for bed. She often watched him sleep, just in case he had a nightmare. She would be right at his side invisible and sometimes invisible, but at those times in the morning he only thought it was a dream. She loved watching him sleep it was usually the only time he was free. Once he had settled into bed and had fallen asleep, Lucy walked over to the bed and sat down. Tonight she was visible; she reached over and stroked away the hair that now covered his eyes. She lowered and softly kissed his lips, and then whisper into his ear.
"Good night John, please have sweet dreams tonight."
John turned over, and she started to walk back to the chair she was previously sitting in, she stopped dead in her tracks then she heard John mumble.
"Night Luce, don't leave I miss you to much." Lucy knew he was still asleep and had heard Mortals could hear Angel when they slept and sometimes had long conversion without realising it wasn't a dream, but this was the first time John had answered back.
"Please stay….with me." He mumbled. "Please Luce."
"I'm not leaving John I'll be sitting right here!" Lucy quietly answered him, not wishing to wake up the rest of the house.
"No! Not over there. Stay with me!" John emphasised the stay with me, that's when she knew he wanted her sleep next to him. Like the person she was, she couldn't say no to this man. She slowly walked back over to the bed and slipped the covers, the minute she was comfortable John turned and wrapped his arms around her. Lucy went ridged the minute he came into skin contact with her, she soon melted into his embrace.
"Thank you." John mumbled again,
"No John Thank you for insist I stay, you don't know how long I have waited for this."
"Yeah I do, for about as long as I have!"
Lucy smiled and soon was also asleep like John.
End of chapter, Please review, I would like your suggestions about where you like to see this story going.
