This is my first time posting onto ff.net so I forgot to put the author's notes at the beginning of the first chapter, oops! I wrote this story 4 years ago and posted it on a few websites, but I decided I might as well add it here so more people can enjoy it! The story takes place during season 5 after "The Good Fight" so there are a few minor spoilers for that episode. It is also a Carter/Benton friendship, not slash.

I live for feedback, it will make me post the chapters faster! Enjoy!

Just to get formalities out of the way, I do not own ER or any of it's characters. They belong to Michael Crichton, Warner Bros., etc.

Slowly Lucy drifted back to consciousness . The first thing she noticed was the cold breeze blowing through the smashed window. Did I leave my bedroom window open again? she wondered. The next thing she noticed was the pounding in her head. Lucy couldn't remember the last time she'd had a headache this bad. Not even after that Halloween party at the dorms. Visions of a black car speeding straight at her flashed before her eyes. Where the hell did that come from? Suddenly everything came rushing back to her. A policeman, a car with no headlights, a terrible screeching, Carter's junk heap. Carter!

Lucy bolted upright, and tried to stay conscious as once again the blackness threatened to consume her. Moving carefully this time, she looked to her left and saw Carter slumped over the wheel, blood dripping from the side of his face.

Carefully she reached over and took his pulse. Slow, but steady.

"Dr. Carter? Carter, can you hear me?" she asked.

There was no response. Lucy glanced back at her watch. She had been unconscious for only half an hour. Besides the pounding in her head, she didn't hurt anywhere else. I'd better see how bad Carter's hurt.

Undoing her seatbelt, she carefully crawled over to him fighting the nausea that was building up inside of her. She wanted to look at his face to see how badly he was hurt, but she couldn't move him incase he had a neck injury.

"Dr. Carter? Please, wake up," she pleaded. She didn't know what to do. She was after all only a student. "Please."

".....hurts...." he breathed.

"Yes! Please say something else!" She didn't want him falling unconscious again because of the obvious head injury.

"...who.....you....?..." he mumbled.

"What? Carter stay with me!" It was too late, he'd already lost consciousness again. "Great," Lucy said to herself. "He's altered."

After a couple minutes of contemplating what to do Lucy carefully climbed out of the car and walked over to the driver's side. She gasped when she saw Carter's face. Glass from the window had cut a huge gash on his cheek, and whatever wasn't covered in blood was badly bruised.

Lucy took off her jacket and covered him with it, then took a couple seconds to assess the situation. She noticed for the first time it had stopped raining, and for that she was grateful. The thought quickly entered her mind that she could drive them to help, but that thought disappeared as fast is it had come when she actually looked at the car. There was no way it was going anywhere. The driver's side was smashed inwards, and the tire was almost ripped off the axle. Plus there was no way she was going to move Carter.

Again a vision of a policeman entered her mind. Where had she seen him before. If only she could remember. Flashing lights, paramedics, the accident! There were paramedics there! She looked down at her watch. Unconscious for half an hour, five minutes from the accident to the intersection, it had been about thirty five minutes. Someone should still be there!

"Come on, Pete, I think we have enough for our report. This accident was obviously caused by the storm," Officer Deadrick said.

Together they headed for their squad car to let the tow truck remove the cars. Apparently the driver of one car had hydroplaned over a puddle, lost control and struck an oncoming car. Luckily no one had been killed.

"Ya know, Jack," Pete said. "This does get kind of boring; writing reports on traffic accidents. Why can't I be doing real police work. Like investigating a murder or tracking a serial killer."

"Well maybe you shouldn't of pulled that stunt with the Captains' daughter," Jack Deadrick snickered. "Or right now you could be doing 'real police work.'"

"I just mean that there is no excitement with this."

"Well just get used to it, it could be a while until the Captain forgives you."

Pete Dalton bit back a rude retort and started walking to the passenger side of the car. It would do him no good if he ended up a desk Sergeant. He started to climb in when a lone figure walking up the road caught his eye. It was unusual for someone to be walking down this road at three in the morning unless they had car trouble, or their cheese has slipped off their cracker.

"Hey, Jack, check this out. There's someone coming up the road."

"What? Where?" He looked behind him and sure enough there was someone coming up the road, but they looked...off. They walked like they were about to collapse. As they got closer he could see long blonde hair and realized it was a young woman. "Come on Pete, let's check it out."

As they got nearer, Jack could see blood running down the side of her face from a cut on her forehead.

"Please....help me. My friend is badly hurt, we have to help him."

"Whoa, slow down," Pete said. "Let's start from the beginning. Who are you, and what happened?"

"My name's Lucy Knight. There was a car accident. My friend is badly hurt." As she said this she collapsed to her knees from exhaustion. Jack moved to her side and helped her to sit down.

"Where is your friend?"

"He's still in the car, at the intersection."

"Pete, run back to the car and get on the radio. Tell an ambulance to meet us at the intersection. Then drive the car over here so we can drive to the intersection," Jack ordered.

"Finally, something exciting," Pete muttered to himself as he ran to the squad car.

"Are you hurt anywhere else, Miss Knight?" Jack asked.

"Huh? No. We have to get back to my friend."

Carter could not name one part of his body that wasn't sore. Of course it would help if he could feel his feet. It had gotten pretty cold since the rain storm, and every cold breeze seemed to blow right through his clothes; chilling him to the bone. Every time he shivered it amplified the pain in his head and chest. He was vaguely aware of sirens in the distance, and the sound of a car driving up. Someone was calling the name "Carter," but since it wasn't him he ignored them.

"Carter?! Carter, can you hear me?" he heard some girl calling.

Lucy could see Carter was awake and mumbling something but she couldn't make it out. His pulse was still slow, and he was freezing. His body was shaking uncontrollably. The ambulance, sirens blaring, pulled up beside them and the paramedics jumped out bringing the gurney and C-collar.

"Be careful," Lucy warned. "He may have a serious head..."

"Come on, Miss Knight. Let the paramedics do their job," Jack said as he pulled her just far enough away from the car so she wasn't in the way, but could still watch the proceedings.

The paramedics carefully placed the C-collar around his neck, and leaned him back in the seat. From there they were able to listen to his breathing and make a more thorough exam. The drivers side door was badly dented inwards and was impossible to open, so the medics had to go through the passengers side to extricate him.

Lucy thanked the officers and climbed into the ambulance with Carter. They wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and made sure the cut on her head was her only injury before they started working on Carter. They started an IV and wrapped him tightly in a blanket. It was all they could do until he was at the hospital.

"What did you say this guy's name was? He looks a little familiar," one of the paramedics asked, trying to start a conversation to assess how lucid she was.

"John Carter. He's a doctor at County General."

"Really? That's where we're taking him. Do you work there too? We should probably radio ahead and tell them who we're bringing in."

"Yeah, I'm a med student. He's my teacher."

"Would somebody answer the MICN? I'm kind of busy here," Mark Greene said.

"I'll get it," Carol said while she reached to answer it. "County General, what do you got?"

"This is Unit 23. We're bringing in two victims of an MVA. Both are stable. A Lucy Knight and John Carter."

Carol's mouth literally dropped open and she was speechless. Did he just say Lucy and Carter were the victims? Everyone in range of the admit desk heard this and crowded around Carol.

"Could you repeat the names?" Carol asked, still not sure if she had heard right or not.

"Lucy Knight and John Carter. Miss Knight just has a laceration on her forehead, but Dr. Carter is not doing well. We're coming into the ambulance bay now." Just then the sound of sirens could be heard. Everyone dropped what they had been doing and gathered around the gurney as it was wheeled in, Lucy walking behind. A series of "Oh my Gods" were heard as people saw the condition their friends were in.

"Alright, give me the bullet," Mark said, taking charge.

"John Carter, 28 years old, MVA. It appears they were broadsided while crossing the intersection. BP 90/50, resps 11, multiple lacerations to the head and arms, ALOC, probable concussion and broken ribs. Two IV's started in the field," one of the paramedics reported.

"Alright we'll take it from here. On my count. 1...2...3!" On 3, Carter was quickly transferred and the paramedics quickly packed their gear and left.

"Lucy, come with me," Kerry gently prodded while escorting Lucy to the trauma room next door.

"Is he gonna be okay?"

"He'll be fine. Let me examine you while the other doctors work on him."

A warm IV and a unit of O-neg were quickly administered while Mark examined Carter.

"Carter, can you hear me?" Mark asked while shining a pen light in his eyes. "Pupils are slow but reactive. He's got a concussion and will need a CT. Chuny, I want you to page Benton, and Carol, cut his shirt off."

While Chuny went to page Benton, Carters' shirt was removed exposing his chest. Carol felt tears come to her eyes and everyone else in the room seemed to stand still. His whole left side was black and blue, and the bruise seemed to disappear beneath the waist of his pants. There was an indentation in his chest were he obviously had broken ribs.

"Alright everyone, focus."

"Dr. Benton, you've got an appendectomy in 3 hours," Shirley said as she handed him the chart.

"Man, how come Romano gets all the interesting cases?" Peter complained, as he eyed the board.

"Well, if you were chief of surgery you would too."

Suddenly Bentons' beeper went off. "911 to the ER. Gotta go." Benton took off at full speed down the hall to the staircase and jogged down them as fast as he could. As soon as he entered the ER he noticed something was wrong. It was too quiet. Where was everyone? That question was answered when he went into the trauma room and saw a lot of the people in there. "What's going on?" he demanded. His heart almost stopped when he saw who was on the table. "Carter!? What the hell happened?" Peter asked as he pulled out his stethoscope and started listening to Carter's breathing; careful of the many bruises marring his left side.

"He and Lucy were involved in a car accident. He's got a concussion, multiple lacerations and contusions, possible orbital fracture, broken nose, and broken ribs on the left side. He may have internal bleeding," Mark reported, knowing Benton would want nothing left out.

Mark ordered tests to rule out spinal damage and to see how badly his ribs were broken while Benton gently felt around his abdomen and hips, looking for definite signs of internal bleeding.

"Has he been unconscious the whole time?" Benton inquired.

"Yeah, but Lucy said he was awake for a moment, but he was confused."

"We need a peritoneal lavage, he may have internal bleeding," Peter ordered.

"Carter? Carter, can you hear me?" Peter gently asked. He held Carter's smaller hand in his larger one, and gave a gentle squeeze. He couldn't believe he was seeing Carter laid out on the table infront of him. Why did things like this always happen to him?

The young man groaned and tried to move his head.

"Carter? Can you hear me?"

"Who... Carter?" Carter breathed.

"What? Carter, what do you mean?" A thought suddenly dawned on Peter. "What's your name?"

"...don't....know."