ER
Back from the Dead-3
A Ghost from the past
This chapter I offer a very special thank you to Jason. He knew nothing about ER before he met me, but was willing to sit with me at 7:30 in the morning at college to help me go over the story line for this chapter and the ones that may follow. Thanks Jason!
Carter entered the ER about eight a.m. He kept an eye out but the more he thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed. He finally came to terms—Lucy's dead, and this morning was either a hoax or his mind playing tricks on itself.
As he arrived to the board, however, he thought different. The board wasn't the new clear one that Kerry purchased a while back, it was the same white one that everyone had come to love over the years. He looked around, and didn't see Susan or Frank. Hm…Maybe he really had gone back in time. He decided to go to assist a patient when his eyes caught Mark and Elizabeth running in, snowball fighting. But…Mark was sick, or so he thought. He seemed fine now. And there she was, calling out for a patient—Lucy.
"Oh my gawd," Carter said out loud to himself, getting a few awkward glances from Chunni, Haleh and…Carol? Yep, he'd gone back.
"Are you okay, Dr. Carter?" Chunni asked, grabbing a chart.
"Yea, fine," Carter replied, walking up to see whom Lucy was calling to…and then he saw him, Paul Sobricki.
"Hey Carter," Lucy said, smiling widely. Carter didn't know what to think, so he smiled back.
"Lucy, you know what…I'll take this patient. Why don't you assist…uh…well, why don't you take a break?" Carter said, quite nervously.
"That's okay, Dr. Carter. I've got this," Lucy said, sheepishly. "But thank you."
And she took Sobricki to exam room three.
"Damnit," he screamed, causing a few people to glance his way. "Sorry."
And he went to do charts, and to try to find a diversion to get Lucy away.
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A few hours later, he was able to stall and talk Lucy into coming into the lounge to talk to her. She seemed precautious, but came anyhow.
"What's this about?" she asked, stepping into the door and getting a cup of coffee.
"Listen Lucy, I know I haven't seen Paul, but after doing the spinal tap on him and confirming that it wasn't meningitis, I believe it's…psychological," he said, hoping she'd buy it.
"Well, Carter, I was actually thinking the exact same thing," she said, sipping her coffee.
"You were?" he asked.
"Yes. I called psych, but their backed up so I'm trying to wait it out," she replied, her eyes darting to the door as Carol entered.
"MVA, family of four. ETA is five minutes."
"Thanks Carol," Carter said. "Why don't you attend to that and I'll wait with Paul."
"Um…are you sure," Lucy asked.
"Yes," Carter said. He led Lucy after Carol and went off to exam room three to find Paul.
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Okay, so he did it. Lucy wasn't going to get stabbed now. But he'd been waiting for psych for about five hours now, and hadn't been able to attend to any patients. He'd finally decided to go to the lounge and told Paul to wait there.
On the way, Abby stopped him.
"Carter," she said.
"Yes?" he asked.
"I was wondering if you could help me, for a bit later. It's regarding a patient," she replied, nervously. He couldn't remember her like this.
"Sure, in a little bit," Carter said.
Entering the lounge, he found Chunni and Conni putting a blue cake in the fridge and his eyes caught Paul standing, with his coat on.
"Paul, what are you doing in here?" he asked.
"Just…walking," Paul replied.
"Well, come on," he said, leading Paul back to the exam room. He walked over to the phone and was about to pick it up when a sudden pain hit his back…
"Oh, god," he fell to the floor behind the bed. Is this what Lucy went through? He lay there for a while, and finally slipped into un-consciousness.