I hope you guys are enjoying the story, I know Carter/Benton stories aren't near as popular as they used to be. I like cliffhangers, can you tell? Remember, even though this story is old, I love feedback. I'm working on stories in other fandoms right now so any suggestions to improve my writing style would be appreciated! Enjoy!

Peter was furious. Whoever had told Carter about the letter was a dead man.

"Carter, it's okay. No one's gonna kill you," Peter tried to console to young man. It was obvious it wasn't working.

"He said he'd kill me," Carter whispered. "Make me pay."

Benton felt his heart skip a beat at hearing that. That was exactly what was written in the letter. Someone had told him!

"Carter? Who told you about the letter?'

"What letter?" Slowly it dawned on Carter. "There was a letter saying someone was going to kill me?" Carter asked with renewed fear in his eyes.

Peter suddenly realized he had made a serious error in judgement. Carter hadn't known about the letter, and he had just told him exactly what he had wanted kept secret. Carter had enough to worry about with the memory loss and the nightmares without having to worry about the terrible letter. One question bugged Peter now. How had Carter known?

"Carter listen to me, and listen carefully. No one is going to kill you. You're safe here. Understand? Now what made you think someone was trying to kill you?"

"He told me."

"Who was it? Did someone come in here and threaten you?" Peter was having a hard time understanding what Carter was talking about.

Carter just shook his head and looked away. Peter took Carter's hand and sat back down in the chair.

"Carter, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on. You can trust me."

Slowly Carter turned his head back around and looked at Peter. It was true, he was dying to tell someone about the nightmare. Maybe then he wouldn't feel so alone and scared. But, was this man the right person to tell? How close were they? This man seemed like he wanted to help so he decided talking with anyone at the moment might make him feel a little better.

"I keep having this nightmare. I'm driving somewhere. It's dark outside. There's this car next to me with some guy driving it, and a...a..dead woman in the passenger seat." Carter had to pause for a moment. Just thinking about this dream was scaring him again.

Benton watched as Carter's eyes focused on something he knew only Carter was seeing. By the look on Carter's face, he knew it wasn't very pleasant. He listened intently as Carter continued with the dream.

"He kept yelling at me. Telling me it was my fault and I was going to pay. That was when the young woman opened her eyes and looked at me. She had a gash on her head, and as the dream went on, a gash on her neck developed." Carter felt his eyes start to well up with tears. "He said that I had killed her. I'd never hurt anyone. It was awful. I..." He couldn't continue. He could barely hold back the tears as they slowly started to fall.

Benton had developed a sick feeling in his gut. That was terrible. He stood up and gently hugged Carter as the tears flowed. He made a promise to himself to get Carter through this no matter what.

"Every time I have the dream it gets worse. I'm afraid to fall asleep again. Please, don't let me fall asleep," Carter confessed into Peter's shoulder.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Peter had never seen anyone so afraid in their life. His heart broke as he heard Carter's pleas to not let him fall asleep again. Peter knew that was impossible. Everyone, no matter how hard the tried to stay awake, would eventually fall asleep. All Peter could promise was that he'd be here to wake up Carter at the first signs of a nightmare.

"Hey, Kerry, come take a look at this," Mark called.

"What is it?"

"I was going through this pile of old charts here, and I think this guy might be the one," he told her.

Kerry couldn't believe her ears. This was really good news finally. "So what does the chart say?"

"Last month a newly married couple were involved in a car accident. A Mr. and Mrs. Vollmer. They were broadsided while crossing an intersection. The paramedics brought them in. Mrs. Vollmer had stopped breathing, and the swelling in the cords was so bad they had to perform a tracheotomy. She also had an open skull fracture with multiple internal injuries. Mr. Vollmer on the other hand suffered only whiplash and a concussion. Carter had been working on his wife for about 2 minutes when she crashed and bled out. There was nothing more he could do."

Kerry got an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. This had to be the guy. "Mark, call the cops and give them this guys name. I have a feeling this is the guy."

She watched as Mark phoned them, praying that they would catch him before he tried something with Carter. She cast a glance in the direction of his room, and saw the security guard still there.

"Hello, I need to speak with Officer Deadrick...Yes it's important....Thanks." He waited somewhat patiently as Jack was found and put on the line. "Yeah, this is Mark Greene over at County. Listen, I think I've got an ID on this guy...Says on the chart here his name is Jason Vollmer...Yes that's right. Carter treated him and his wife last month when they were in a car accident. The wife died...Her name was Anna....I think that's a pretty clear motive...You do that." Mark hung up and turned to Kerry.

"Well, what did he say Mark?"

"He said he'd run the name through the computer. Of course they haven't gotten the fingerprints yet. For some reason the computer that runs the prints developed a virus. They have to go to a neighboring precinct to run them, and might take awhile depending on the number of prints needing to be run from other officers."

"Well I hope they hurry."

He was in the car again. It was different this time somehow. He looked to the left expecting to see the car beside him. It wasn't there. He breathed a sigh of relief and turned his head back to the road infront of him when something to his right caught his eye. He turned his head and gasped. The man was there. Sitting and staring at him. He was paralyzed with fear. All he could so was look at the man. Too afraid to breath.

Suddenly without warning the man jumped at him and grabbed him around the throat.

"Let go of me!! I...please..." he couldn't say anything else as his air supply was cut off. Struggling was futile as the man was much stronger. As he felt himself slipping from consciousness, he caught a glimpse of her in the backseat. Eyes bright red and smiling.
Benton kept a close eye on Carter. He'd been asleep for about twenty minutes, and so far so good. Maybe he won't have one this time, Benton thought. That thought quickly changed when Carter's heart rate started to rise and he started to struggle. What alarmed Benton was the fact that Carter was gasping for breath. Like he was choking. Or being strangled, he thought with dismay. Quickly he grabbed Carter's shoulders and shook him awake

"Carter? Carter, man, it's okay. It's over," he soothed.

Carter's eyes sprung open and he grabbed at his throat still struggling to breath. Peter reached over the head of Carter's bed and grabbed the nasal cannula that he been a hanging there just in case. He put it on and Carter's breathing slowly returned to normal.

"Is that better?"

Carter nodded his head, but didn't say anything. After he'd settled down, Peter tried to ask him what had happened, but Carter wouldn't answer. He'd withdrawn inside of himself. Peter started to feel guilty for letting this happen. Not waking him up sooner.

"Carter? I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be back." Again as he turned to leave he felt Carter grab his arm.

"Please, don't leave me," he pleaded.

"Carter, I really have to go. You're safe here. The washroom's right there. See?" Peter pointed to where the washroom was, just on the other side of the room.

Slowly Carter nodded his head.
A man entered through the ambulance bay doors, unnoticed. He walked by Carter's room and peered in the door. He hid a small smile as he headed for the elevator up to another floor.