A/N: This was written in response to a challenge. There had to be spontaneous singing, an accident involving Carter or Abby and chocolate.
"Easter Challenge"
April, what can I say, it's not my favorite time of the year, but that's what it was. The snow was almost gone, but it still wasn't warm enough to go out without your winter coat. I wanted spring to be here already.
Abby and I had worked long and hard to get back to where we were. All those little baby steps, rebuilding our friendship, rekindling our relationship. The road to mending broken hearts was longer than I thought it would ever be. So much had happened between us that at times it seemed that all the hurt and the heartache would never end. But as winter fades to spring and the flowers begin to bloom again so did we. That was a time that I'd rather not revisit again.
I kick the ground as we stroll down along the river towards County. We're between shifts. I'm just now getting off after 12 hours in the ER, with Abby about to start her own 12hour marathon. She had become a bright, outstanding doctor; just like I always knew she would be. Her residency was going smoothly and every day you could see her confidence growing. I reach down to brush a lose strand of hair from her face.
There's a lone man sitting by the river strumming his guitar. It's a song that I know and like, makes me think of everything that I can do for her. We stop walking and look out over the river, the city lights are twinkling making the river shimmer. I take her hands in mine, looking into her beautiful eyes, the love for me, that's there every time I look, takes my breath away. There is nothing that could compare with the love that we have for each other; and I find myself singing to the song the man is playing,
"They read you Cinderella, you hoped it would come true. That one-day you're Prince Charming, would come rescue you. You like romantic movies; you never will forget the way you felt when Romeo kissed Juliet. All this time that you've been waiting, you don't have to wait no more I can love you like that, I would make you my world. Move Heaven and Earth if you were my girl. I will give you my heart, be all that you need. Show you you're everything that's precious to me. If you give me a chance, I can love you like that. I never make a promise I don't intend to keep. So when I say forever, forever's what I mean. I'm no Casanova but I swear this much is true, I'll be holdin' nothin' back when it comes to you. You dream of love that's everlasting, well baby open up your eyes."
I pull the words from my heart. Granted I know I can't sing, but it doesn't seem to bother Abby. At least she hasn't covered her ears or tried to shove my scarf in my mouth to muffle me. She's smiling that special smile; you know the one that could light up all of New York. It's almost as if she didn't know how beautiful she really is. She pulls one hand from mine, and I watch her from the corner of my eye as she puts it in her pocket. Her smile changes, going from the 'I love you,' to the 'I'm up to something' smile. Before I get into the chorus of the song again, soft giggles erupt from Abby as she shoves a handful of those coated Cadbury chocolate eggs into my mouth as an attempt to silence me. I have to admit it works because you can't sing with a mouth full of chocolate. I smile at her, before leaning down to kiss her. Gently I pull away, putting my arm back around her as we continue on towards the hospital.
I walk her inside, knowing full well that I had just left and the eminent dangers that could lead me being pulled back into working. I shake my head thinking foolishly that I can get her to the lounge and back out those double doors with out anyone having any idea that I'm here. Yet, somehow people have figured out that generally where there is an Abby, not far from her there is a Carter. I make it to the lounge unseen, it's getting back out that's the hard part.
"Dr. Carter?" I hear a voice from behind calling to me.
"What," I snap as I turn around knowing that my chances of getting out of here have just been jeopardized by answering.
"I need some help with a patient in two." The voice responds. In turning around and looking I see it's a new medical student, a 3rd year on her ER rotation.
"I'm off. You'll need to find your resident." I say back to her.
"Dr. Pratt has taken a patient up to the OR." I hear her say back, "Please, this is urgent."
"All right," I say looking at the nametag. She's not one that I have had to work with yet. "What do you have Rachel?"
"24 year old male, came in complaining of lower right quadrant abdominal pain." I listen to her as she reels off the symptoms. "Now he appears to be altered. I ordered a CBC, chem. 7, tox screen, and ultrasound to rule out a hot appy."
"Did they come back yet?" I asked her.
"No, I'm still waiting."
As we walk into the room it is pretty clear that the patient has become altered. I look at one of the nurses, "Temps up to 104."
Rachel looks at me, "Ruptured appendix?"
"From the looks of it probably, call the OR we're sending him upstairs." I say.
As she walks over to the phone, the patient decides it's time to flat line. Great, not what I wanted to be doing tonight, "Get me the crash cart." She grabs it and makes the same mistake of many med students passed. Though, I can't understand why I'm always on the receiving end of it. There's no time for me to react before I feel my chest tighten and sharp pain shoot thru my body before the room goes black.
"Dr. Carter!" I feel someone violently shaking my shoulders, "Dr. Carter! Wake up!"
My eyes blink to see who is shaking me. I'm in the lounge, laid on the couch. I must have fallen asleep and now there's a med student standing above me shaking me, trying to raise me from what was a blissful slumber. "What do you want?" I grumble as I open my eyes.
"We've got a MVA coming in with an ETA of five minutes." I hear a voice say back to me.
"Okay, I'm coming," Was my simple response as I drag my tired body up off the couch. I hit the lounge door pushing it open, grabbing a trauma gown from the rack and pulling it on as I go out into the night to try to save yet another life. I run my hands up and down my arms in a feeble attempt to stay warm. It was making much difference as I watch the ambulance comes flying into the bay. I pull open the back door as I have done many times now over my career here. "What do we have tonight Doris?" I ask the paramedic.
"30 year old male found unresponsive..." I listen as she gives me the bullet, trying to take in everything that could possibly be wrong with the man. Didn't look like this was going to be a good night now as we pull the gurney into trauma one, and I get a glance of the patient. He's dressed in a bloody rabbit suit. I was working on the Easter Bunny!
I start treating him and manage to stable him enough to wait on the surgical consult. I snap my gloves off and take a look at the board, it's starting to back up. Lovely, just how I wanted to spend my night. Grabbing a chart, I look out into the waiting room. Oh my god! What is going on? There's either a full moon or are the ER gods out to get me. There are giant Easter Bunnies everywhere.
The ER is overrun with Easter Bunnies. There are cut ones, sick ones, doubled over ones, one that looked a bit green around the edges, short ones, tall ones; what, am I trapped in the twilight zone now? I walk over to one of them casually taking my time as I try to grasp the full realm of what is going on.
"Mr.?" I look at the chart; no way, this isn't funny now, "Mr. E. Bunny?" I call out to find all off them now staring at me wide eyed. It takes a few minutes before one of them actually walks over to me. I lead him back into the ER. Still amazed and bewildered by all of this. "Okay can you take off the bunny head so that I can get a good look at you?" I say thinking that this is just too weird.
He shakes his head in disbelief that I would ask him to take the head off.
"Come on. Please," I say once again. "It's just a Bunny suit, surely you can take the head off so that I can examine you."
All I get from my patient is a shaking of his head again. Okay, now I was going to have to call psych down cause I have a man who thinks that he is really the Easter Bunny sitting in front of me and I can't examine him if I can't get a good look at him. I shake my head as I walk over to the admit desk and pick up the phone. Wait; what were just a few bunnies has now multiplied. God they were multiplying like rabbits! There were now small bunnies, several small white furry bunnies were in my ER waiting room.
I call for my psych consult, and as I turn and looked around the waiting room again my mind starts to spin. For now there had to have been hundreds of bunnies in the waiting room. I blink there's more, I blink again even more.
"Carter, Carter!" I hear my name, my body being shaken harder now. "John, baby wake up, please wake up!" The voice almost frantic.
I can hear voices in the background now. "What was it set on? 300, oh god hopefully you didn't put his heart into an abnormal rhythm." I can feel hands pushing on me, pulling at me, moving me. Then there's that familiar smell of oxygen being forced up my nose.
Oh how I hate that feeling. I blink, the bunnies are now gone. There are people all around me now as I blink a couple of more times, okay where did the bunnies go? Abby is standing over me looking concerned as she is listening to my chest with her stethoscope. "What happened?" I ask feeling foggy.
"Rachel here decided that you needed a jumpstart on your night." She said taking the stethoscope from her ears. "But you're going to be okay."
"Giant Bunnies, there's giant bunnies in the waiting room." I know I'm not making much sense.
"John you hit your head on the gurney behind you when you fell." I hear Abby say to me, "we're going to take you upstairs for a CT scan to make sure that you didn't crack your head."
Was it nothing more than a dream then? I had to ask myself. I feel the gurney that I am laying on being moved out of the room towards the elevator. There's a small girl in a wheelchair coming out and on her lap was a small furry bunny. I blink in disbelief as she smiles at me petting her bunny. Maybe it wasn't a dream?